balmy mid-summers night on watch, the type when many would sit out until the wee small hours in their shirt sleeves, enjoying a barbeque and a drink. He and Captain Lancaster had opened the windows on the rear of the house to try to let the trapped heat out, and any welcome cool breeze in.
“Yes, sit-rep.” Their commanding officer, Colonel Gordon Kelsall’s face appeared on his phone.
“Sir, it’s been nice and quiet, as usual, up until a few minutes ago.”
“Go on.” Colonel Kelsall was intrigued by the change in events. He’d had a team of surveillance officers watching Eric’s house on Steelgate Drive for the past few weeks, ever since the incident that ended in Tom’s death and Eric’s accident, and it had always been reported as being very quiet.
“Tom Barratt literally bumped into Eric.”
“Sorry Ian, but I thought you said Tom Barratt.”
“Yes Sir.”
“Oh!” Gordon couldn’t think of anything else to say, knowing that he and Ian had been at the exceptionally well attended funeral of Eric’s best friend a couple of weeks previously.
“I know.” Ian took in a deep breath. “So, can we intervene?”
“No.” Gordon quickly answered. He then paused for a second. Ian watched his Commanding officer lift his head to look out of the window that looked over Morecambe bay to the distant mountains of the Lake District. “Sorry, no,” Gordon’s voice had softened. “Let’s see what occurs.”
“Sorry?” Ian was confused and glanced at Captain Lancaster, who had walked into the room after hearing the conversation start and simply shrugged his shoulders.
“Look,” Gordon sighed, looking directly at the little camera on the top of his computer monitor. “I know you’ve got history and a connection with the boy, but we can’t just burst into there without knowing what will happen.”
“Sorry sir, but we’ll not know what will happen if don’t find out why a dead teenager has suddenly appeared at his best friend’s house.”
“I know, but you nearly blew your cover last time.” Gordon rubbed his hand across his forehead, keeping a tension headache at bay.
“If I hadn’t gone in...” Ian realised that he was clenching his teeth as the anger started to rise, and he calmed himself down. “If I hadn’t gone in, then we might have lost him completely.”
“I realise that, but thankfully, no-one saw you, well apart from her,” he said the name with a sneer. “But it could have been worse.”
“Sir, she’d turned up, had thankfully mistaken Tom for Eric, injected him with some killer disease, and was about to resolve the mistaken identity with the right target.”
“Look, we don’t know it was a killer disease, seeing as you’ve just told me he’s turned up.”
“Sir, unless the medical equipment and staff at the Royal Preston Hospital were mistaken, and then he’s dug himself out of a sealed coffin and through 2 metres of dirt, I think we can safely say that he was dead.” The anger had started to rise once more. “You were at his funeral.”
“OK, but you cannot be 100% certain that this is Tom Barratt.”
“And that’s why I want to get in there and find out what’s going on.” Ian explained. “I know these boys; I think they trust me enough to let me help them.”
There was silence at the other end of the call while Gordon once again looked out of his windows across Morecambe Bay to the distant fells and mountains of the Lake District. It was a nice clear morning; the tops could be seen clearly, no clouds gripping to them. He felt a desire to just get up and walk out of his office and climb one or two while he pondered this problem. He knew he was fortunate living where he did. And that freedom of having the open countryside right on his doorstep meant he had lots of time to be alone and simply think as clear as the mountain air. Everything was put into perspective when stood atop a Cumbrian mountain. The world looked so tiny, so distant, that he could focus on the single main problem in his life.
He so wanted to do that right now, but knew he didn’t have that luxury.
“No, and that’s my final answer.”
“Sir?” Ian replied through gritted teeth.
“You’re on a sit and watch recon only, no interaction.” Gordon explained. “Let’s not jump in like last time.”
“Excuse me Sir.” Ian interjected angrily. “But if I hadn’t jumped in at that time, then Eric Peterson could have been abducted or worse still killed.”
“True, true, but as you’ve just said, Tom’s come back, so being killed might only been part of the process.”
Ian heard the words and had to agree with them deep down, even though he wanted to get in there, as he could feel some danger was about to occur to one or both of these boys. Call it a detective’s hunch, or intuition, or whatever, Ian occasionally had these feelings, and in 99 out of 100 times, he was always right.
“Look, you managed to save your cover last time, saying you saw flashes of lights and heard a bang as you were walking up to the door to bring some news for Eric from the school about his playful abduction by the young thug Armer.” Gordon explained his reasoning for his decision. “It’s only because of Eric’s amnesia and the fact that his mother knows us that she played along with the plan, but it could have been so different.”
“Sir, I had that feeling then, and I have it now.”
“And I’d nearly always go with your intuition, because I’ve never had anyone under my command that was so good at seeing the outcome before it occurred, or at least being wary of it.”
“Thank you sir, but I am right nearly every time.”
“So why can’t this be the one time that you’re not?”
Ian sighed, because he’d been on a good winning streak for a while, and always had that tiny niggle that at some point, he would be wrong. “I know, I know.”
“Right, so stay put this time, no kicking down doors, gun raised, and lets just sit and wait, you can clearly see the house, and if they leave and use the alley, you can get round to Brownside Road in a matter of seconds and follow them.”
Ian smiled at the all action hero image he had in his head, wondering how it would have looked in a movie. “OK, we’ll wait and see.”
Thank You - Phil Cocker.
You have just read a short taster fir the next novel in The Eric Peterson series, which will be available, very soon, in all of the popular e book formats.
Bullying
Please note that the story and its characters are purely fictional, but there is the sub-plot that touches on the subject of bullying Eric and others. If that part of this novel has touched something within you, and you’d just like to know more, or who you could turn to for advice; then please don’t hesitate to visit any or all of the following websites.
www.Bullying.co.uk
www.Childline.org.uk
www.NSPCC.org.uk
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