He remembered D.I Arnold describing how he had got into this mess. He had been part of a giant operation to bring down Ironside. A large weapons trade had been due to take place on 21st January. According to intelligence gathered, they knew where it was, they knew who was involved, and they knew the time. What they did not know was the exact size of the trade or the number of people involved.
Using most of the local police force, and some reinforcements from a neighbouring force, D.I Arnold set up a perimeter around the place where the trade was due to happen. The plan was to catch them in the very act. They had not counted on Ironside setting up his own perimeter outside that of the police.
Just as the trade had been about to start, every police officer involved found themselves surrounded. Ironside pulled Arnold from the crowd and gave him an ultimatum. If he agreed to do the next trade, he would let every police officer go free. In addition, D.I Arnold would be compensated for his efforts. If he failed to agree, then he, his officers, and his family would not live to see the end of the day.
Arnold did not consider that he had any choice. He made the deal and everyone was permitted to leave. Ironside, as a means of confirming the threat, kidnapped Arnold's only daughter the following day. His sister also met with an accident, which was beyond coincidence. She was in a critical condition, and the prospects for her survival did not look good.
Jake figured he had two things to do today. He needed to save Arnold's sister from being badly hurt, and prevent the kidnapping of the man's daughter. He could remember where the Arnolds lived, but had no idea where to find D.I Arnold's sister. Perhaps a return to the Arnold home would provide some leads.
Jake decided not to bother with the façade of going into work again. He suspected that if he could replace the start of these horrific events with a day that could prevent all of this from occurring, time would start to move forward again, and he could get back to a normal way of life. He would be able to go back to work without having to worry about saving people's lives.
He let his mind drift into what he now considered fantasy: Normal life without lifesaving or life risking. The idea that he could wake up the following day instead of the previous one would be complete bliss, and despite the occasional day of complete boredom, Jake had a longing to return to a normal life. This journey now felt as if it was close to reaching its conclusion, and he had a stronger desire than ever to finish this, although he suspected there was more danger to come.
He thought of how he would go about tracking down Arnold's sister. He had already tried the phone book when searching for the Arnolds the first time around. There were far too many names to go through in order to find the right one. He didn't even know the first name of the sister. Thinking back, he wished he had asked, but it was quite possible he would not have remembered it through the drugs haze anyway.
In a flash of inspiration, he suddenly knew where to look. He used his computer to log onto the internet, and found a site where he could check local electoral rolls. Everyone registered to vote in his town would be on the list. He checked the Arnold's address and discovered that a woman by the name of Jennifer Arnold was registered at that address, as well as Andrew Arnold and his wife Rebecca. He remembered Arnold mentioning his daughter was only seventeen, and so as she was not old enough to vote. As a result she would not be on that list.
That was it. All he had to do was keep an eye on where Jennifer Arnold went after leaving home. He looked at the clock on the wall of the study. It was twenty minutes to eight. He would have to be there as soon as possible to make sure he didn't miss her leaving the house.
He hurriedly got dressed and left the house earlier than usual, barely speaking to his family in the process. He told Amy that he was behind with some paperwork and needed to catch up. There was no sense involving her in all of this again. He hoped to arrive at the Arnold house before anyone left. This time he would be as inconspicuous as possible.
There was no way he could handle another confrontation like yesterday.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Only a single light was illuminated inside the Arnold house as far as Jake could tell. With dawn just starting to break, anyone moving around would still need light to see where they were going. He had no way of knowing whether Jenny Arnold still lived there, but he had nothing to lose by waiting there to find out.
He did not park directly outside the Arnold house as he had done the previous day, but was farther down the street in a turning area, still close enough to see most of what was happening inside the house, and everything outside of it. His engine was off, and no lights were on either inside or outside the car. It would take a very observant person to notice he was in the car at all. No one in this house would even know that Jake existed yet, so he definitely would not be recognised by any of them.
It was several minutes before the single bedroom light in the upper left corner of the house was turned off and replaced by the light in the living room at the front of the house. Jake was certain that someone was getting ready to leave.
A problem occurred to Jake concerning his plan to follow Jenny Arnold. There was only one car outside, and he knew that it belonged to Andy, the corrupt policeman. If his sister left the house, she would probably do so on foot. There was no way that Jake could follow her in his car if that was the case, and he was not confident about following someone on foot without them becoming aware of it. He needed to think of a way around this or he might miss his opportunity to prevent the events of the day.
Several more minutes went by, and more lights were turned on inside the Arnold home. It appeared that everyone was now getting ready for the day. Jake had little time to wait before someone left for work.
His attention sharpened as the front door of the house opened and two people got into the car. Jake recognised one of them, but he had a new problem. The only person he could positively identify was D.I Arnold. The woman by his side could be his sister, daughter or wife. She looked several years younger than he did, and as such he figured she was too young to be his wife. He looked like he was nearly fifty, and she looked as though she could easily be ten years his junior. That would also mean that she was too old to be his daughter. His deductive reasoning led him to believe that this was indeed his younger sister, and that her policeman brother was giving her a ride to work.
Jake waited for the car to start and then move out of the end of the cul-de-sac before starting his car to follow them. For the next ten minutes he was able to stay several cars back, keeping an eye on every turn they made. He felt like some kind of spy, and reasoned that he was actually making a good fist of it. They would probably have no idea he was following them. Most people would only be on the lookout for someone following them if they had a reason to expect that someone would do so. As they would not be looking for him, they would not notice him. It was a theory that he had only just come up with, and he hoped it was true.
After a couple of turns into side streets, Jake was now just one car behind theirs. He had been so focussed on following them that he had not realised their apparent destination. They drove down Park Place before turning to their right into the car park of Darlington’s main police station.
Jake drove slowly past the car park entrance and came to a stop in a lay-by immediately on the left. Both D.I Andy Arnold and his sister walked into the station. For some reason, Jake had not expected to discover that she worked at the police station. Her manner of dress is not suggest that she worked as a police officer, so Jake concluded that she was probably one of a group of typically unseen civilian administrators.
He knew it was going to be difficult to track the activities of a woman working in a large police station. He could not exactly walk in through the door and follow her around. It was unlikely that she would come to any harm within that building, in any case. And yet she would be the victim of some kind of accident, but how and where would that take place? All he could do was sit and wait, and watch the doors of the building through a
gap in between a couple of small buildings, the other side of around twenty parked cars.
Jake considered the amount of time he had recently spent just sitting in his car. He had learned that while his car was comfortable for driving, it was not the most comfortable car for surveillance. He had decided that any car he owned in the future would be as comfortable as possible for such tasks, just in case he should find himself in a spy-like role again. Doing so would mean that he would not come out of such situations with a stiff back.
Maybe he would invest in some in-car gadgets to keep him amused. He could not believe the state of boredom he could achieve whilst doing something so important. The past few days had taught Jake that life as a spy would not suit him. It appeared to be rather glamorous and exciting on TV, but in real life it turned out to be much less impressive. All he seemed to do during surveillance was to stare at the outside of buildings whilst trying to stay awake.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Jake's eyes opened and he realised he had fallen asleep with his head resting against the top of the steering wheel of his car. He lifted his head and looked at the clock on the dashboard. It was nearly ten o'clock. Not only had he fallen asleep, but he had been out for a considerable amount of time. This was another indication that a career in surveillance was not for him.
He looked at his reflection in the rear-view mirror. As he feared, he had a large red mark crossing his forehead in an arc where the steering wheel had been. It looked quite ridiculous, and although he knew no one in this neighbourhood, he hoped he would not have cause to get out of the car.
He forced his sleep-affected groggy head to concentrate on the matter at hand. Once again he tried to recall as much as possible from the previous day's interview. He thought he remembered Arnold saying that his sister had been in intensive care in the hospital for most of the day. That would suggest her accident had happened quite early. Suddenly he feared that he might have missed the incident already.
He picked up his mobile phone, searched for details of the police station in front of him, and called the phone number listed. The call was connected, and he heard one ring before it was answered and he was greeted with a generic police introduction.
“Hello. Can I speak with Jenny Arnold please?” he asked politely.
“She's busy at the moment, I’m afraid,” came the reply. Then there was a slight pause. “Are you the man she's meeting with at lunch?”
Jake had just caught another break. “Yes I am. There's been some confusion at my end about the venue. Could you possibly ask her to confirm that for me?”
“It's in her schedule in front of me… twelve thirty outside The Sandwich Bar.”
“Ok. That's all I needed to know. Thank you very much.” Jake hung up before the woman could respond. He knew where the meeting place was located. It was a popular place at lunchtime, on the corner of Bondgate and Skinnergate, close to the centre of the town. In fact, by his recollection it was far too popular at lunch time, as it was difficult to fight a way through the crowds in order to obtain food. The Sandwich Bar had only recently taken up a retail space on the corner of the two streets next to the pedestrianised section of the street, near the old indoor shopping centre named Queen Street. The sandwich outlet was also within view of the former town cinema, now home to a snooker hall. They made fresh sandwiches to order, at a more reasonable price than local fast food restaurants. The food tasted better, and was healthier by comparison too.
He figured that this would be the place where the accident would happen. He simply needed to make sure he was in the same place at the same time in order to prevent it. This also meant he had another couple of hours to kill until lunch time.
He could easily sleep until lunch time. The past few days had worn him down more than any other time in his life. He set his mobile phone to wake him up in plenty of time to stop the accident, and let his head rest against the steering wheel again. He knew he would have an unsightly red mark across his forehead again when he woke up, but at that moment he was so tired that he didn't care.
It seemed he had barely closed his eyes when he heard the sound of his mobile phone. He opened his eyes, looked at the clock on the dashboard, and was surprised to see it was almost twelve o'clock already. He could not fathom where the time had gone. It seemed to him as though he had only just closed his eyes. This had happened to him on other occasions throughout his life, and he hated it.
He felt no less tired than he had done when he had rested his head against the steering wheel for the second time almost two hours earlier. Regardless of where the time had gone, it had nevertheless gone. He needed to wake himself up and get to the Sandwich Bar.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
As Jake stood on the corner of Skinnergate and Bondgate, outside the aptly named establishment known as “The Sandwich Bar”, he wondered what the recent fascination was with businesses using obvious names. The pattern of “The” followed by a description seemed to result in large nationwide corporations. It seemed people were more likely to give their custom to shops with such conservative names.
Another sandwich shop was located several doors down with similar prices and a similar product, but the name was an Irish surname and seemed not to provide what so many potential customers wanted. Jake had eaten from both and, in all honesty, had not tasted any difference, the prices seemed almost identical, and so he decided the bold and ridiculously obvious title must be the difference.
The white on bright red sign and colour scheme throughout was far more eye-catching than the dark green of the other sandwich place. It seemed that retail establishments were redesigning logos and store fronts to be as bright as possible with the brightest greens, yellows, oranges and reds. The simplistic plain looking shops of previous years seemed to be a thing of the past, although Jake hoped simpler shop fronts would return at some point in the future. The end of the street closest to the centre of the town looked more like it had been influenced by a five year old with crayons than image consultants for various large retail companies.
He started to wonder whether he would recognise Jenny Arnold when she showed up. He had only seen her in dim light from a distance. He realised that he would probably be unable to pick her out in an identity parade, let alone in a crowd outside a busy shop at lunchtime on a weekday.
He thought he saw her walking towards the store front. As the woman got closer he was almost certain that it was her. He had no idea what to do next, and was about to call out her name when someone behind him beat him to it. She looked across the crowd and walked right past Jake to the man standing immediately behind him.
At least Jake was in a prime position to find out why she was meeting with this man. What had he said to persuade her to meet him here? He was about to find out.
Jake tried his best to block out the noise of a rowdy, impatient lunchtime queue but it was anything but easy. Although the conversation was happening less than three feet away from him, he could hardly hear a word of what was being said.
He could hear Jenny ask what this was all about. “I have some information about your brother," the stranger said, “and you'll see why it's important in just a minute.” He moved away from the crowd slightly, towards the corner of the street, and beckoned Jenny to stand in front of him. She moved and was now standing on the very edge of the kerb.
Jake was too far out of range to hear what this man was saying. He caught the occasional word. He thought he heard 'conspiracy', 'trade', and 'factory' in the conversation. It appeared to become quite heated. He guessed that this man knew about Arnold's suspicious dealings and was telling his sister everything he knew. She clearly refused to believe it and was going to make sure he knew it.
Jake's first thought on seeing them move away from the crowd was that this man was going to set up this accident. Seeing the sincerity of this man now led him to believe otherwise. If he was trying to position her for an accident, why would he risk telling her the truth about all of this?
Something
did not fit, and in an instant, Jake knew what was wrong. He spied another man, dressed in a dark outfit with dark glasses, breaking from the queue in the sandwich shop and racing towards Jenny and her informer.
Jake knew what was happening. There were a couple of cars travelling down the road at around thirty miles per hour. One nudge could send either one of the unsuspecting couple into the path of a car before the driver could brake or move out of the way. A stranger had broken from the lunchtime queue and was heading for Jenny Arnold and her apparent informer. This guy had to be one of Ironside's men, and Jake needed to stop him from harming either of these people.
Time seemed to slow down as Jake turned around and tried to intercept the man. Jenny and her informant seemed so wrapped up in their own conversation that they had not yet noticed the guy charging towards them. Jake's close proximity to them increased his chances of stopping the assailant.
As he approached them he was behind the other man. If he didn't do something very quickly, he would not be able to prevent what was about to happen.
He threw himself at the man in the dark outfit, effectively rugby tackling him to the ground. The guy hit the pavement hard, a yard or two short of the two people for which he was aiming. Jake came out of the tackle unscathed, having landed on top of his target.
Jake looked up to see the eyes of Jenny and her friend widening. Jake realised he had just completed his first task of the day. He hoped the other guy had hit the ground hard enough to knock himself out. He looked quite vicious and Jake didn't want to make yet another enemy.
He got to his feet and the guy on the ground did not move a muscle. Jenny Arnold was staring at him, and seemed to want an explanation.
“He was going to push you off the pavement in the way of a passing car,” Jake began to explain in a matter-of-fact tone of voice. “I don't know why, but I do know you should probably keep an eye out for people like this. I would also suggest not standing so close to busy roads.”