broken into while their owners have been off hiking or mountain biking. Certain local worthies have got it into their heads that this is bad for tourism, ergo their businesses, and have bent Inspector Morgan’s ear.’
‘We’re gathering all this manpower and going on a stakeout for vandals?’ I let him hear my amazement.
‘Correct.’
‘There’s something quite endearingly reassuring about this, Huw. That this is the extent of major crime in the area. But is it really worth the time and the effort?’
‘Feral youth.’ I heard his amusement.
‘What?’
‘They’ve somehow fixed on the notion that it’s down to gangs of wild drug- and booze-fuelled kids from Swansea or Liverpool driving in to target our community and heading back with their bags full of swag.’
‘I take it you’re not sharing this apocalyptic vision?’
‘I think we’d have come across a bit more noise and a lot more damage. And they’re not taking our virgins with them.’
‘Have you got anyone in mind for it?’
‘I could probably point to a couple of people, but I’m keeping my head down. I don’t want to be seen as the one who pissed on Inspector Morgan’s crusade.’
I registered the warning.
Feral youth?
Back in my hospital bed I tried to square that with what little I remembered of Jessie Bullock. I couldn’t. No snarls, no attitude, not even a visible piercing.
I had been prescient. It did rain on the night.
Those of us who weren’t already in their assigned places assembled in a hut that was shared between the local Boy Scout troop and the Women’s Institute, as evidenced by the rope knot posters and a tea-making roster on the walls. The floors creaked, and I imagined the memories locked into the fabric, a combination of suppressed unfocused juvenile lusts and home-made scones and jam.
Everyone was in mufti, and most of them had somehow managed to over-emphasize the fact that they were out of uniform by making their outfits look like disguises. A room full of charged and eager hyper-civilians.
Morgan briefed us from the raised dais. I had only ever seen him in uniform before, a stiff and disapproving man with a widow’s peak over a crinkled washboard forehead. Tonight he looked incongruous in a pale blue anorak and a knitted ski cap, his voice raised to overcompensate for the lack of visible rank badges.
He ran us through it. Two vehicles had been planted in the car park to act as honey pots, a swanked-up BMW 3 Series coupé, and a Subaru Impreza. Two surveillance vehicles were already in place, a camper van at the far end, and a Ford Transit covering the entrance, which could also double up as a blockade vehicle if the bad guys attempted to leave the car park in a hurry.
The police house in Dinas was going to be used as a reception and holding area, from where the detained suspects would be distributed to the larger centres.
The rest of us were assigned to roadside stations where we would park out of sight and cover all the routes leading to the car park. If any suspicious vehicle went past us we were to call it in to Morgan. But we were to wait for his signal before we moved.
‘Any questions?’ Morgan asked, his wrist crooked in front of his face as he made a big deal of checking his watch.
I put my hand up. I knew I should have kept quiet, but I couldn’t help it. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Huw Davies give me a significant look.
‘Sergeant Capaldi?’
‘It’s the bait vehicles, Sir.’
‘What about them?’
‘Aren’t they a bit …’ I searched for a nice way to put it. ‘Aren’t they kind of out of place?’
‘What’s your point?’
‘It’s just that I can’t imagine the kind of people who would normally drive that type of car to be the sort who would leave it in the middle of the countryside while they go off for a long healthy hike.’
He smiled nastily. ‘You’re probably right, but the people we’re targeting tonight don’t know that.’
‘Sir?’
‘They’re only interested in the bling, Sergeant. They don’t care what motivates people to come out here. That’s why we’ve carefully chosen these particular cars.’ He smiled superciliously. ‘I think you’ll find that they’re going to be more interested in the Subaru or the BMW than any old Land Rover or Vauxhall Corsa we could have left in there with a no-nukes sticker on it.’ He was rewarded by an all-round chuckle.
‘Yes, Sir.’ I bowed out.
The teams paired up preparatory to leaving. I was left conspicuously on my own.
I sat in my car in my allocated slot in the dark and listened to the carillon of heavy drips on the roof from the tree canopy, with the occasional heavier note of dislodged beech mast. The radio was turned down to low static with the odd interference jump.
This was bullshit, I told myself again.
‘Go, go, go!’ Morgan’s voice whipped out. And, despite my deep-seated cynicism, I felt the familiar lurch of adrenalin and excitement kicking in as I reached out to start my car.
There were two other cars fishtailing down the access road to the car park in front of me. I pulled up at the entrance and tried to make sense of it. The far end of the car park was illuminated by headlights which were focused on the surveillance team’s camper van. The two honeypot vehicles were off to the side, still in the dark, and being ignored. On the other side was the dark hulk of an abandoned and burnt-out car that ruin had made unrecognizable.
I got out and slipped a high-visibility police raincoat on. I walked across the car park until I caught up with a straggler on the edge of the group that was concentrated around the camper van. A loose semi-circle of people had formed, and I could make out Emrys Hughes and Inspector Morgan in the midst of it.
‘What’s happened?’ I asked.
‘We’ve caught a kid,’ he replied breathlessly, still meshed up in the excitement of the chase.
‘What about the rest of them?’
He shook his head. ‘I don’t know.’
I moved towards the semi-circle in time to catch Morgan saying, ‘… spread out and move into the woods.’ My heart sank.
He caught sight of my hi-viz jacket and scowled at me furiously. ‘I didn’t give any orders about breaking out of cover, Sergeant Capaldi.’
I looked at the floodlit mêlée that had been created, but thought better than to remark on it. ‘I’m sorry, Sir. I just thought we had a result.’
‘We got one of the little buggers,’ Emrys Hughes chimed in gleefully.
I
