THE ENGLISH WITNESS Read Online Free PDF Page A

telephone exchange as
well.” He paused before continuing in a lower, mildly apologetic tone. “You
were on the phone for over five minutes.” His words were calm and confident,
but even Jack noticed something edgier in the body language.
    “Good thinking, Alonso,” replied the
detective in a tone of voice that kept an unspoken dialogue going behind the
measured words. “Keep watch on the street. Everyone else, stay away from the
windows.”
    Alonso flattened himself against wall
beside the window and peered diagonally down at the street. “Clear at the
moment. Instructions, Chief?”
    “Just keep watching. And this is your
speciality. What do you think?”
    “Still clear, but we need to get out of
this apartment. I suggest we bluff our way into one of the units on the first
floor. I’m betting they’ll come up here first, but when they find us gone they’ll
work their way down through the block one floor at a time. It’s still not a
great position to be in, but if they’re careless we may be able to slip out via
the fire escape. Still clear.”
    There was a pause of several seconds,
during which Jack tried hard to come up with a helpful suggestion. “No, wait,”
hissed Alonso before the Englishman had a chance to collect his thoughts. “There is something going on down there.”
    Miguel looked Alonso in the eye for a long
moment, then his face set hard. “OK, move,” he ordered. “Down four floors, then
we’ll knock somebody up and tell them we’re investigating a complaint. Go.”
    Keep moving. Keep your head down. Don’t
make a sound. A voice
from an earlier decade reverberated inside Jack’s head as one by one they
hurried through the front door of the apartment and down the stairs.
    Reaching the first floor, they slipped
through a door onto the landing just as they heard heavy footsteps on the
stairs leading up from the foyer. Miguel rang the nearest doorbell,
simultaneously rapping on the wooden door with the knuckles of his other hand. He
gestured at Alonso, who started across towards one of the other apartments.
Then the first door opened, and Miguel found himself looking into the face of a
big and florid middle-aged man in white shirtsleeves.
    “Police,” barked Miguel with
urgency in his tone. “We need to come in and talk to you.” Then, without more
ado, he shouldered his way past the bewildered occupier and beckoned the others
to follow. Alonso was the last man through the door, and barely had time to push
it quietly shut before sounds filtered through from outside.
    “Report, Red Leader,” demanded the voice on the radio.
    “Negative outcome, Captain,” replied the
squad leader nervously. “Target residence shows signs of recent occupation but was
vacant at the time of entry. All the same, Captain, brilliant idea of yours,
cross-checking the…”
    “And naturally you searched the
neighbouring apartments,” interrupted his superior.
    “Indeed, Captain, the entire block. And we
thought at one point that we’d found them. But it was just a group of friends
playing cards.”
    “Unacceptable, Red Leader. I’ve
considerably overplayed my hand. I committed all the resources you said were
needed to guarantee the outcome. I will now have to deal with the fallout.”
    “Captain, I’m recommending that we remain
in the field. The targets must be on the street by now, and we still have a
chance of intercepting them.”
    “You’ll need the cover of darkness to
withdraw, so you have a little time in hand. Don’t waste it, Red Leader. For
all our sakes and particularly for yours.”
    The captain cut the radio connection and
reached for his mobile phone. “Bird has flown,” he tapped in as a text message,
“but hawks are still in the air.” He knew that in the event of failure he was
in every bit as much danger as his squad leader.
    Several hundred kilometres to
the south, a powerful man read the message and scowled. Just like Jack Burlton,
he could not believe that events four