Read Online Angel and the Actress by Roger Silverwood - Free Book Online

driver in an emergency. It transmitted by radio a pre-recorded distress message with an added map reference to the security firm’s depot. The car driver had hoped to have prevented the call being sent. He quickly looked round for the aerial. He saw two. He reached out and hammered each of them savagely at the base with the butt of the handgun, then grabbed them and yanked them off the vehicle, hoping that he had been able to stop the signal to the security company in time.
    The van driver and his mate looked round and saw him. He waved the gun at them. They saw it and put up their hands.
    ‘Take your helmets off, leave them there and get out,’ he said.
    They slowly obeyed.
    He pointed the gun at a space on the pavement and said, ‘Lie down there on your bellies, close your eyes, don’t move and you won’t get hurt. I’ll be watching you.’
    He then looked towards the back of the van to see what was happening. Suddenly, the three men in balaclavas, jeans and T-shirts jumped out of the van. One of them was trailing a flex of wire and a battery.
    ‘Take cover,’ he called.
    The men ran back about fifteen yards, then squatted on the road with their backs to the van.
    The big man with the gun ran with them.
    The man trailing the wire called out, ‘Heads down. Three. Two. One. Blast!’
    There was a loud explosion in the back of the van, creating a small cloud of white smoke.
    The men dashed back into the van. There was a quiet moment, then a small cheer went up followed by a lot of activity. The big man in the dark suit went to the Ford Mondeo, removed a brown and white suitcase and took it to the van. Three minutes later, the four gang members and the suitcase, bursting with money, were in the Ford Mondeo, which was being cautiously driven at a steady thirty miles an hour back towards Bromersley town centre. The driver took the road out of town to Cheapo’s supermarket car park, where they left the car discreetly parked among sixty or seventy other cars and made their different ways to their own transport. The big man took the brown and white suitcase.
     
    It was 8.28 a.m. when Angel arrived at his office the following morning, Tuesday, 4 November 2014. He was quickly followed by PC Ahmed Ahaz, whose eyebrows were raised and eyes were shining. ‘Have you seen this, sir?’ he said, holding a newspaper out in front of him.
    Angel’s mind was fully engrossed in the murder case and on what he needed urgently to attend to that morning. He didn’t intend being diverted. ‘What is it, Ahmed?’ he said tetchily.
    ‘The front four pages are all about the Joan Minter case, sir.’
    ‘Well, she was very famous, there’s bound to be … Four pages, did you say?’
    ‘And there’s a photograph of you, sir, on page two.’
    He lowered his eyebrows. ‘ Me? ’ he growled. He took the paper and glanced at the front page. It was the Daily Y orkshireman . The headline was: ‘Joan Minter murder official: Angel leading investigation.’ There were two photographs of her on her own, a very early one and a most recent one; four with her and her respective husband at the time, and an old photograph of Angel looking smart in uniform when he was a police sergeant.
    He blinked when he saw the picture of himself. He glanced at the other pages, then turned to Ahmed and said, ‘Can I read this later, Ahmed?’
    Unusually, Ahmed hesitated. ‘Yes, sir,’ he said, ‘but can I have it back because I want to put it in my scrapbook.’
    Angel concealed a smile. ‘Yes, of course,’ he said. ‘I won’t forget.’
    Ahmed looked pleased and made for the door.
    Angel said, ‘Find Trevor Crisp for me, will you?’ His face muscles tightened, then he shook his head. ‘I can never find that lad.’
    ‘Righto, sir. I think he’s in CID,’ Ahmed said, and he went out.
    A few moments later, DS Crisp arrived.
    Being the head of CID at Bromersley, Angel wanted to be briefed about crimes reported to CID the previous day while he had been