CHAPTER THREE
HEAVEN TO HELL
Chris opened his eyes and looked down at the folder still spread in front of Uncle Harry. Amazingly, he had only been through about half of the file. Leaving Chris to realise that they had a lot more information on him than he had at first thought. Although originally he had believed that many of the pages were blank, and that he was trying to bluff him.
Uncle Harry looked up at him saying, “Oh you are awake, I thought for a moment you were asleep.” “You see even your records show that you have the ability to sleep sitting up, so that people around you do not know”. He continued, asking how was he going, while adding that his past was the type of information that one could write a book about.
For the very first time Chris opened his mouth, but nothing came out. He had wanted to say something, but from within, his training stopped him. Harry was taken aback, realising that he had almost succeeded in getting him to cooperate. He continued his line of attack my making nice comments about his family in the faint hope that it would open him up just like the folder on the table. After all Harry had also realised that the one floor Chris might have, was his family. Even his reports spoke of his devotion towards Brenda and his children.
“Would you like me to continue Chris, maybe it will help you, and then after wards, maybe we can talk about your future”. Inwardly Chris thought to himself, what future. If I don’t get out of this mess the only future, I’ll have will be in a prison cell. Being the true professional soldier that he was, he knew that once he said one solitary word, Uncle Harry would have him in the palm of his hand. If you say one word, it’s a safe bet that you will say another, and another until you spill the beans.
His training had taught him, even though you are allowed to give your name rank and number when you are captured, it always leads on to other things. By just saying thank you, when something is offered, that word thank you will lead to other. You have said something other than your name rank and number, and your interrogator knows that he can get you to say more. Although Chris did not know it, Uncle Harry was a very shrewd person, who also knew all of these details, having served in the military himself many years earlier.
Uncle Harry continued to talk of Brenda and the family, and occasionally looking up at Chris, he watched as a small teardrop appeared in the corner of his right eye. He knew that he had Chris in the palm of his hand, and that he was almost ready to crack. He also realised that he had touched a nerve, after all he knew that the files in front of him contained details that were going to hurt, if he pursued along the line of questioning he had chosen.
For a second time Chris slowly opened his mouth, and after a few seconds quietly uttered the words, Trooper Lawler 21414. It was as though Chris believed that he was still in the service and had been captured on a mission.
However, for Uncle Harry it was a starting point, something he could build on, but he showed no sign of elation on his face, not wanting to show signs of success. He was also a very good professional, and now was not time to gloat about what he had just achieved. It was not his aim to break Chris, the only thing he wanted at the moment was his cooperation.
The room suddenly fell into silence as neither of them spoke for a few minutes. Until that is, Uncle Harry started to once again read from his files. He knew what was to come, and was pinning his hopes that it would be the trigger to get Chris to talk to him.
If 1965 was one of the best years that Chris had ever experienced, then 1970 turned out to be an absolute disaster for him. It started off well but soon deteriorated into one hell of a mess for all of the family.
While Chris was still on active service in Ireland, and had taken to his situation like a duck to water settling down to getting the job done and done well. Only then would he be allowed back to the Squadron Headquarters in England and eventually a long awaited reunion and leave with his family. Failure to Chris was just not an option, to him if a job is worth doing then it’s worth doing well, living on the edge to Chris was just one big adrenalin rush, and he thrived on it.
Brenda was living with her parents in Aldershot, and although the house was crowded with the two children, they all seemed to get on reasonably well together. Most parents will always have time for their own children and grandchildren, its only with the Son or Daughter in laws that they seem to have problems. They had all accepted what Chris was doing and that it was important to him, even though they had not planned for the separations that it brought upon them.
One thing that was constantly on their minds was the fact that Chris was missing the children growing up something that he might regret in later life. Once they are teenagers it’s too late, and you cannot have those years back to relive them in a different way.
In order to get out of the house as much as possible Brenda, would always volunteer to do most of the shopping taking the children with her. While at other times, she would take them to different parts of the town to show them places of interest. Being a military town, she was never comfortable, and was always conscious of all of the Soldiers around. At times, it felt like she was being harassed by every single one of them. To most people who had been brought up in a military town there was no problem they just seemed to think nothing about it, but to Brenda it was constantly on her mind. She longed for the days when as a family they could just move away to a quiet little village somewhere. Her preference had always been to move to Suffolk, ever since Chris had told her all about the area. She was not a person who was into travel even though she had heard of all the exotic places that were out there. No, she just wanted to settle down to a quiet life in the country somewhere with Chris and the children.
One day Brenda was with the children in one of the local supermarkets buying the weekend groceries. It was very late in the afternoon and there was not a lot of people around. Being very cold and snowing outside, most had returned home early to the comfort of their open fires and central heating. Brenda was slowly making her way up and down one of the isles trying to decide what to buy, while she carried Mark in front of her in a harness. Diane was running up and down and just generally playing games around her Mother’s trolley. Brenda was able to take her time, as there were not many people around, so nobody was getting into each other’s way. She could just amble around at her own pace taking it all in and choosing the best value buys.
She heard what sounded like a scuffling noise over the tops of the very high shelves that she was walking amongst heading in the direction of the checkout area, but did not pay any attention to it. She just carried on up one isle picking up the odd item and then down the other. Finally, as she rounded the last isle and turned in to the area where the checkout desks were, she walked on to a man confronting the four girls manning the desks. He was hooded and brandishing a saw off shotgun that he had pointed at the girls and was demanding money.
Brenda was immediately struck by horror, and worried for the safety of her children. The fright of the scene that greeted her made her jump, and the trolley she was pushing hit and knocked over a large display of stacked up tins of beans. The noise of the tins all falling to the ground made a deafening crash, while at the same time startling and frightening the holdup man who was waving the gun at the terrified check out girls.
It frightened him to such a point that he swung round and fired before he had realised what the noise was. The blast hit Brenda right in the middle of her chest having passed through her son Mark. The force of the blast flung them both back and onto another display, that was made up of tins of fruit. The scene was one of utter chaos, with tins, blood and debris going everywhere. The checkout girls were by now screaming at the tops of their voices, thinking that they were going to be the next to be shot.
As little Diane came running around the last isle, it was her turn to startle the robber. Who still had the shotgun pointed in that general area? He pulled the trigger without hesitation, and at such a close range could not help hitting the little girl. The robber by this time was completely mixed up in hi
s head not knowing what to do next. Suddenly he turned his gun around and back on to the girls, waving it around while shouting at the top of his voice that they give him the money. However, they were so scared and screaming that he could not make himself heard above their screams. Then suddenly a woman came running while screaming at the top of her voice down the last isle and straight past the man with the gun, through the front door and out into the street. Even if he’d had wanted to stop her, it would have been out of the question. As he had used up both barrels of the shotgun, and had no spare ammunition. Although he had not intended to use the gun on any one, he had only meant to scare the people with it. By this time, he had realised what he had done and that shooting somebody else, was not going to help him get the money anyway. Looking out of the front window of the shop, he could see people coming over to investigate the shots. So he just grabbed as much cash as he could from the cash register that he was standing nearest to him, and ran out of the shop as fast as he could, knocking down one old lady who was using a walking frame. He then hit another middle-aged guy in the chest with the stock of the gun who got in his way, before disappearing into the fading light of the late afternoon.
An ambulance was called and the paramedics worked hard on all three of the victims trying to stabilise them so they could be worked on in the hospital, but it was all for nothing. On their arrival, Brenda and both the children were all pronounced dead. Her parents were asked to come in and identify them for the authorities and left very distraught. While the Police were informed that her husband Chris was away on special work for the military and would not be able to return home.
The SAS decided not to tell Chris of the event even though they had a big debate over the subject. It was felt that there were no advantages in placing his work in jeopardy at this stage. Therefore, he was left doing the work that he had been sent to do and it was accepted that it was giving the military good results.
Two months later when it was deemed that his mission had been successful and fully completed, he arrived back at Hertfordshire. Where he was met by his Commanding Officer at the Barracks, and in the privacy of his office he was given the tragic grim news of the death of his complete family. Chris was left completely stunned, not asking one single question of the Officer, leaving his office in complete shock and silence. He returned the following morning to see the Officer with a full list of questions to confront him with. Top of the list was why he had not been allowed back to at least attend the funeral, so he could have seen them all just one more time. He was given the old answer that he was doing to valuable job for his country. However, they did not want to place all of his good work at risk, or the security of the country. Knowing the military, he knew it was pointless to keep pushing the question, so he left it and start asking as much detail as possible of the killer.
There was not a lot that he could learn, as the killer had never been apprehended and brought to justice. Nobody had identified him or been able to give any details on the botched up robbery. He had just vanished into the night never to be seem again. The Police had been of the thinking that he was a military man, and felt that he might have been drafted to another part of the country with his unit.
After a month of just sitting around on his own, and only occasionally leaving the house to visit the grave of his family. It became more than he could bear, so he started to hatch a plan in his head on what he wanted for his future. He wasted no time in seeing his Commanding Officers and telling him, that he wanted to buy himself out of the service. The Officer spent a lot of time trying to persuade him that the SAS was now his family, and that they would look after him. Chris was adamant and persistent that he wanted to leave and as soon as possible.
He had made up his mind that if the Police could not find the robber, then he would. Therefore, he spent the first couple of weeks chasing up leads, if they could be called leads. Just hoping that he might be able to come up with that little shred of evidence that the Police might have missed. However, it was all for nothing, there were no leads, and the Police had been honest with him when they told him that the trail had gone cold. His constant worrying and searching for all the answers laid very heavy on him and he came close to having a nervous breakdown. He went days without sleep and food, and was almost on the point of passing out.
If it had not been for his Parents who searched him out, he would have ended up being very ill. They took him home to live with them, who at that time were still living in Colchester. He spent a month living with them and in that time, he became withdrawn never leaving the house or talking to anybody. Over the years, that he had been married there had not been much contact between them, just their occasional visits so they could see their grandchildren.
When finally, he came round and started to accept the hand that had been dealt him, he started leaving the house and spending hours on his own walking around the town. He started reading the local newspapers and generally taking an interest in what was going on around him, especially anything to do with law and order and how it was affecting the town. He became obsessed with the subject and of how high the unsolved crime rate around him seemed to be increasing.
A lot of the trouble seemed to happen during weekend nights and usually in and around the centre of town where most of the public house were congregated. Every Friday night he would take a bus ride into town and just slowly work his way around the pubs, looking for youngsters breaking the law or just pushing the law to the limit. Whenever he decided that somebody had over stepped what he considered the thin blue line of law and order. He would then serve out his form of justice, whenever he could, to the unsuspecting victims. Chris was always careful not to pick on large groups of youths or to give his victim any clue to his identity. Most of the time he would follow his chosen victim until he found a darken area and there he would dish out a battering with his fists and unarmed combat blows that had been taught him in the military. He became so obsessed with what he was doing that he actually believed that he was helping the law. After all the newspapers were always printing stories that there were not enough Police to cover all of the town or indeed the country for that matter. Occasionally if he caught anybody actually breaking in to premises, he would knock them out and bind their hands behind their backs using electrician’s cable tie wraps, which he carried. By first placing, their arms behind their backs and around whatever was close at hand like a lamppost, and then tightly fix their thumbs together around the post with the cable ties. He would then ring the Police giving them the briefest of messages of where they could find the victim and what he had done.
The Police started receiving so many calls directing them to scenes where they could find victims near the location of break-ins, that they started a file. Although at that time nobody noticed the similarity, that they always had their thumbs bound together behind their backs using plastic cable tie wraps.
This went on for almost six months and in that time Chris was almost caught a couple of times by Policemen who just happened to be passing the scene or were close to it. Once he had to actually out run one Policeman, it was only his fitness, and cunning that got him away and from the scene of the crime.
Detective Ronald Knights had been assigned the investigation, and to stop whoever it was, before he went too far and killed somebody. By this time, the Police had a large file on the subject and it was becoming thicker by the week. The Detective was sure that his man was a serviceman or had been one at some time in his life, by the way in which he was carrying out his work. The calls to the Police were all made from local call boxes and it was widely believed that the caller stayed around to watch the Police arrive, or to make sure that the villain did not get away. However, they were wrong on that account, because Chris was always long gone.
By now he had attracted the nickname of the ‘Electrician’ and was helping the Police solve a large amount of crime, but it was felt that he could not be allowed to keep getting away with it. Who knew how far he would go and what if he was t
o eventually kill one of his victims. Then the newspapers would have a field day with that story, and would more than likely accuse the Police of letting him get away with it. Maybe even accuse them of assisting him, in helping them clean up their soaring crime rate. Consensus of opinion at the Police station were divided, with half of the staff were quite happy to let the ‘Electrician’ carry on solving the crime rate for them. After all, since he came on the scene the petty crime clean-up rate had dropped off the charts. All he was doing was giving the louts a good hiding, something their parents should have done during their early years. In fact, at times some of the Police wished that they could do the same, but with litigation like it is. They dare not exposed themselves to any smart lawyer that might be waiting in the wings for his chance to make a name for himself, and a lot of money for his troubles.
The heat was on Chris and he knew it, he had also had time to think over the past six months, as he had mellowed down a little. He had started to accept that his wife and family had gone forever, and no matter what he did they would not be coming back. With no description of their killer there was no way that anybody was going to apprehend him. It was about time that he just dropped his vendetta while he was ahead, and got on with his life the best way he could. He strongly believed that the Police were slowly closing in on him and that it was only going to be a matter of time before he made a mistake and they caught him. The best thing he could do now was to move away and find a new home.
He was still in his twenties and had a long life in front of him, there was a whole new world out there waiting to be discovered. Up till now he had only knew a military style of life and sadly now he did miss it. He missed the camaraderie, the travel and the unknown that lay around almost every corner. His one wish was to try and get back into the SAS, but he knew that would be almost impossible. Chris knew that he could not just walk back in and pick up where he had left off. He would have to join a parent Army unit and then apply to join the SAS ‘Selection’ team just like everybody else. There was then the scenario that he might not be accepted, or dread the thought, if accepted then he might fail the course. Having passed it once did not necessary mean that he would automatically pass it a second time. He was a different person now and his metal ability would also be checked carefully.
It was always believed by the top military staff that when SAS soldiers returned to their original units they would take with then skills that could then be passed on to others, and so help in the training of other units. There were also the other things to be considered and that was the total number of members who served in the SAS at any one time, with only three squadrons, there was a limited amount of personnel required, hence the very high attrition rate during training. In this way, they could always ensure that only the very best survived to serve in one of the best military units in the world.
If his application was rejected, he would then be trapped in an Army unit and that was not what he wanted. He also considered the Royal Marines, from there with luck he might be able to gain entry to the SAS. Although once again if he failed to get in, well then he would have the option of staying and trying to gain entry into SBS (Special Boat Service), but once again he might not be accepted in the SBS. However, at least he would still be in in the Royal Marines and they had a good reputation to serve in.
Chris spent a full week going over all of his options, time and time again until he came up with the answer, and it was a good one, at least as far as he was concerned. He would make a clean break from all that had gone before, he wanted a new life, a new start. Therefore, he had to try something completely new.