Missing Years ( Part 31)

Spencer was in his small office back at the station. The desk phone rang.

“Sir, there’s a Colin Garner at reception for you”

“OK sergeant, I’ll be right there”

Spencer left his office and walked along the corridor to reception. When he got there he was surprised by the look of the person that greeted him, he was expecting someone like Swan, a larger than life character, full of importance, ex-military. What he actually saw in front of him was quite the opposite, Garner was short, no taller than 5ft 9inches, about 50, overweight, scruffy, his grey hair could do with a cut, there was an ugliness about him as well, his nose was far too big for his round fat face, in fact this guy had nothing going for him at all.

He held out his hand.

“Mr Garner welcome to Romford Police station, follow me to my office and I’ll bring you up to speed”

“Thank you Inspector”

Garner followed Spencer back along the corridor.

“Sorry about the smell sir, I think the drains may be blocked up”

“Smell Inspector? I can’t smell anything!”

They sat in the small office, Spencer began to speak.

“I’ll tell you everything I know Sir, about Ray Samuels, he…”

Garner interrupted.

“Look Inspector, I know everything already, I have read everything that Swan had on file about Ray Samuels, in fact I probably know more than you do. The most important thing is that I get to see him as soon as possible, tonight would be good, we’re running out of time”

“Well Sir, he’s at his father’s home at the moment and he’s not alone, he seems to have found a friend, a bit of a down and out called Trevor Wilson”

Spencer noticed the smirk that appeared just for a moment on Garners face.

“Do you know anything about Trevor Wilson Sir?”

“No more than you do Inspector, now if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to get over to the Samuels house right away, can you take me?”

“Of course Sir, we can be there in about 20 minutes”

The two of them got up and left the office.

Stacey and Eddie had arrived back home and were each sitting down with a cup of coffee. Stacey was looking sad, Eddie thought she was about to cry.

“Look love, I know you’re upset about Ray, so am I, but we both know now that it’s not really him, it just looks like him, it’s not our Ray”

“But Granddad, I so wanted it to be, to have him back after all those years, it was like a dream, I felt like a little girl again, I love him so much”

“I know, love, so do I, but we have to accept that it’s not him, it’s someone pretending to be him that’s all, he’s tricked us all”

“So what do we do now Granddad, if what James Conroy is saying is right, and I think we both know he is, what do we do?”

“There’s only four of us that know love, me, you, the Inspector and James Conroy, between us we’ll figure something out, I’m sure”

“I hope so granddad, but I’ve got a really bad feeling something is about to happen”

They hugged.

Back at the Coach House in Romford, James Conroy had surrounded himself with books. He’d collected his car from the local car park and driven it to the parking spot behind the hotel. He always carried a number of reference books, but since his meeting with Swan, his car had become almost his home. He’d stayed at the travel lodge in London for the past four days and now he was in another hotel. Two days ago he’d ordered a courier to bring him another 20 or so books from his home in Oxford. He was sure that somewhere in this massive pile of knowledge he would find the answer. He had everything from various Bibles, to writings by Aleister Crowley.

One thought kept running through his mind, it was from an Old Catholic Book on demonic possession; it was something that he’d remembered from a long time ago.

“A spiritual battle must be fought with spiritual weapons”

He hunted for the book amongst the mass of them on his bed, he found it, he found the page and began to read it out loud.

“A spiritual battle must be fought with spiritual weapons, the devil does not make peace treaties, he knows only war. We must fight the good fight; we cannot run away, surrender is not an option”

These words came from a Catholic Priest called Father Corrami, in 1764. He went on to say.

“A man that has total faith in God is in a state of holy grace and has nothing to fear from the Devil, constant prayer is important and gives you strength”

James Conroy thought long and hard, who was the most religious man he knew, who prayed constantly, who carried a Bible with him wherever he went, who had total belief in God! There was only one man and he could get close to Ray.

It was Eddie Samuels!

Spencer pulled up outside the Samuels house. Garner got out of the car.

“Do you want me to come with you Sir or wait outside?”

Garner dismissed him.

“I’ll take it from here Inspector, you run along, I could be some time!”

Spencer watched as Garner walked up the path of the Samuels home and knocked on the door.

He saw the door open and Ray Samuels greet Garner. But there was something else; it looked like Samuels kissed his hand!