Chapter 45

I arrived at Victoria station, went through the ticket barrier, and headed towards the booking office for London hotels and guest houses. I needed to book a room for the night. Totally relaxed, I was starting to feel more secure in familiar surroundings where I felt more at home.

My relaxed state was shattered just after I passed through the ticket barrier. A gun barrel was poked into my side, and my left arm was grabbed.

‘Just come with us Major. I have a gun with a silencer, and it is pointed at your side. One false move from you and your dead.’ I was left with no alternative but to accompany him.

Another man grabbed my bag and my other arm. They marched me across the station concourse to a car that was waiting outside the station. I couldn’t believe it as this was all happening in broad daylight with a policeman standing about ten meters away.

They shoved me into the back of the car, where one of my abductors joined me. He shoved his gun barrel into my stomach. At the same time, he pushed me down onto the floor of the car. I heard my bag being thrown into the boot. The other man climbed into the passenger seat. We moved off.

‘I don’t want to have to use this gun in the car, so just stay down and be quiet,’ he barked at me.

Who on earth were these people and how had they tracked me down. The man, who had grabbed me at the station, appeared to have been on the same train as me. They must have been waiting for me in Dover and followed me from there. Whoever was on the train with me, would have phoned through to their accomplices in London. They in turn, had organized for the car to be at the station.

Cramped up on the floor of the car, I had no way of knowing where we were going, I listened for familiar noises, but all I heard was traffic. I decided to ask; although I wasn’t too hopeful of getting a reply.

‘Where are you taking me?’ I asked in as brave a voice as I could muster.

‘Never you mind where we are taking you, you will find out soon enough. There is someone who wants to have a little chat with you for the aggravation you have caused him. He will then decide what your fate is,’ the man in the front seat replied.

‘I think that you have the wrong person as I don’t know what you are talking about,’ I thought that I might be able to sow a seed of doubt in their minds.

‘It was your limp that gave you away Major; otherwise we might have missed you.’ He had a triumphant note in his voice.

Obviously I couldn’t talk my way out of it as they were confident that they had their man. Keeping quiet was probably a wiser option.

The sound of city traffic was gradually replaced by Motorway sounds, and our speed seemed to increase. I assumed that we were close to our destination when they pulled my head up and wrapped tape around my eyes.

‘Don’t want you to be able to look at the house where we are taking you do we,’ the guy beside me said.

Shortly after that we stopped and I heard a motorised gate open. We drove another few meters onto gravel, the car stopped again, and the doors were opened. I was roughly pulled from the car, and two men grabbed an arm each and marched me inside what I assumed was the house. I heard a door being opened, and I was led into a room where they tied my wrists together behind my back. They finally knocked my legs out from under me, and I plunged to the floor.

‘You will have to wait here until the boss returns,’ one of them said. They then left the room, slamming and locking the door behind them.

I was bruised and uncomfortable, but at least I was still alive. They could have done a Brian Fortiscue or a John Power on me and shot me in some country lane or disused warehouse and dumped my body.

My mind had gone around in a many a circle before I heard footsteps approaching the door and the lock being turned. I had no way of knowing whether these were the same men as before. They came into the room and pulled me to my feet.

‘Time for you to meet the boss Major.’ It was the same voice as before.

They brought me out of the room and along a passageway. I was half walking and half dragged as they seemed to be in a hurry. A door was opened, and we went into another room.

‘Ah Major Hamilton, how lovely to see you at last. I am sorry that I had to arrange our meeting like this,’ the voice was unusually strong, and obviously used to giving orders and taking control. ‘Take his blindfold off boys. It doesn’t matter if he sees me and the house as he won’t be around to tell anybody.’

One of the men grabbed hold of the end of the tape and yanked it off; I gasped in agony as half my eyebrows came off.

As my eyes recovered and I got used to the light, I was able to see the man who had been talking to me. Standing close to a large fireplace with a wooden mantle was an elegantly dressed man, about six feet in height, wearing a blazer and a mustard coloured cravat, light grey trousers, with a sharp crease, and casual black shoes. He looked every inch an English gentleman with the figure of a sportsman. I would have put him in his early fifties, and he obviously worked on his appearance.

‘In case you don’t know who I am, my name is Ronald Pendleton, and I am the person whose business you have been interfering with. You have got far too close to the truth for my comfort, so I have had to take action Major. You really should have been more careful as my men picked you up remarkably easily in Dover when you got off the ferry. After your adventures in France, we had been expecting you.’

So this was Ronald Pendleton, and I must have been brought to his house at Henley-on-Thames.

‘You’ve done surprisingly well Major. Much better than I would have expected after what Harold Fortiscue’s told us about you. He recommended you because he was convinced you hadn’t a clue what you were doing and would screw everything up,’ Ronald Pendleton smiled as he talked to me.

‘Why are you involved in all this Mr Pendleton?’ I asked. He was in a talkative mood, so he might give me useful information, even though it was unlikely that I was going to be able to use it.

‘Oh, a man has to earn a living Major, and this whole thing has been an easy way of making money with only minimal costs. It is surprising what people will do when they owe you a lot of money. I can destroy their whole lives if they don’t do what I want.’

“Sounds remarkably easy when you describe it in those terms, and you are obviously satisfied with the way that it has gone.’

‘Everything was perfect until you stuck your nose in. Now I will have to dispose of you in the Thames to avoid any further embarrassment and inconvenience,’ he said signalling to the two guys. ‘Take him back to the room and get rid of him in the river when it gets dark.’

They gripped an arm each and marched me back to my prison. This time they tied my legs together before they shut and locked the door.

I struggled with the rope binding my wrists to try and loosen it, but they knew what they were doing and I couldn’t get free. The same applied to the bonds around my ankles. I was stuck and starting to panic.

A while later the two men returned to my prison, and this time they put tape across my mouth, making it impossible for me to talk or call out. They then carried me through a door at the rear of the house and down towards the river. I struggled violently, but they were far too strong for me. The tape on my mouth made it impossible to call out, and, even if I was able to, I doubt if there was anybody around to hear my plaintive cries. Bound around the ankles and with my arms tied behind my back, I wouldn’t survive long in the river.

In desperation, I thrashed around, making it extremely difficult for them to keep hold of me; however, they finally had me on the riverbank and they launched me into the river. Even though it was summer, the cold river water took my breath away.

This time I didn’t have a life vest under my anorak, so I had nothing to prevent my head from sinking in the water. The current started to turn me over and over in the water, moving me downstream. As my clothes got heavier, so I sank lower and lower in the water until I was practically submerged. Breathing became more and more difficult, and I couldn’t prevent water entering my mouth. This was it. Visions of my family started to fill my head. I would never see them again, and I would never be able to tell them again how much I loved them. Peace descended on me in a strange and mesmeric way, and I started to drift into a quiet world.

Suddenly strong arms grabbed me. I was pulled towards the bank with my head being held above the water. In a state of semi-consciousness, I started to fight against the hands that were holding me. I received a blow to my chin, which stunned me. The next thing that I knew I was on the bank looking up into a scuba mask.

‘You OK now or are you still going to fight us,’ a friendly voice asked me.

I wasn’t able to speak as I was still gasping for breath.

I felt the ropes around my legs and my wrists being loosened and removed. I was turned over onto my front, and they forced me to expel any water that was still in my mouth and lungs.

After a few minutes, I started to recover.

‘Who are you and where did you come from,’ I asked, looking at the two black and shiny men hovering over me.

‘We are members of a police sub-aqua team. We have been keeping an eye on the premises that you were thrown in the river from. You are an exceptionally lucky man that we were here; otherwise you would be history by now.’

‘I don’t know how to thank you enough. I was sure that I was going to die. In fact, I had already said goodbye to my family in my head.’ Tears came to my eyes in front of those two police officers; I was too upset and shocked to be able to control myself.

‘Let’s get you out of here and back to our base. We will also have to phone Inspector Baird. He gave us strict instructions that we must call him immediately anything happened,’ one of the divers said.

They took me back in a dingy to where their van was parked and where there were some other members of the team. I was never so glad to see anybody as I was to see that group of divers. Without them, I was a dead man even though I had a sore jaw where I had been punched.

One of the divers handed me his phone.

‘It’s the Inspector, and he wants to talk to you.’

‘Hi Vince, they say that they just pulled you out of the river. Are you alright?’

‘Yes, I am much better now. I am just feeling extremely lucky to be alive and very thankful that you had the divers placed here.’

‘Listen Vince, I am on my way there so don’t go off anywhere. Is there anything that you need?’

‘Inspector it would be fantastic if I could get some dry clothes. My bag is still at the house I was held in and I am obviously soaked through having been in the river.’

‘I’ll bring something with me although they may not fit too well.’

‘Thanks Inspector, I’ll see you soon.’

I finished the call and returned the phone to the diver.

‘Wrap yourself in these while you are waiting.’ The police diver gave me two blankets, which I wrapped around me after I had taken off my outer clothes.

‘Take this mug of tea and get it down you. I have put some whiskey in it for you, which we carry for medicinal purposes,’ another of the divers put a mug into my hands.

‘We’d better get back to our spot on the island just in case they decide to throw anybody else in the river,’ one of my original rescuers said as they got an inflatable ready to take them to the island.

‘I’d run the engine of the van and let you get warm, but we still need to keep as quiet as possible,’ the officer in charge said. ‘Noises travel so far at night that the people in the house might get suspicious.’

‘I’ll be OK until the Inspector gets here and he brings me some dry clothes,’ I commented.