Tamara's Diary - Easter 2015 Part 2

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Tamara's Diary - A Tommy & Tamara Interlude

 
 
Thursday 2nd April

Well, it's today, my driving test that is. Tony has been brilliant and showed me way more than I'll need to pass the test, I just hope I don't show off! Anyway, I have a bus to catch.

I was really nervous when I got there and the examiner didn't make it any easier! The actual test was okay, Tony had told me not to just use the mirrors but to make sure the examiner saw me using the mirrors. Traffic was good so that didn't cause me a problem either. He asked what I was doing in Cornwall when my provisional licence gave my address as Thurso, I said I was with my aunt for the holidays, I might use that line again.

I tried to wind Heather up but it seems I can't pull off a convincing lie!

Suzie arrived this evening, we'd only met once before but it was great to see my new sister.

 
Friday 3rd April

It was hard work today, Heather and Sophie told us about the mission on St Marys but I didn't think it was all going to be needed. I was exhausted when we finished so it was a relief to get out. Fistral Beach is something else but it was really bad news to find that thief trying to steal Heather's bag, although Sophie was plainly not happy with Heather.

 
Saturday 4th April

Suzie and I were off just after eight for the drive down to Penzance. I really wanted to drive but it seems I can't get a hire car for some time as I'm a new driver. We made the ferry terminal in good time so grabbed a drink in the café there. The crossing was calm and we found the guest house okay, even if we couldn't put our bags in our room until later.

I had a phone call from Emily at New Scotland Yard who asked that we email any photos to an address she then gave me, I did them in batches but waited until I was somewhere I could get free wifi. We'd walked into the town then down to the harbour, taking photos of the boats and any cars that were in the area.

After a pasty for lunch we went to the chandlers Heather had mentioned and had a look. The CEO was there, I talked to him about buying a dinghy but he laughed saying I couldn't afford it. I waved my platinum card and said I could easily afford but didn't care for his attitude. Some of the staff were laughing at him as we left. Apart from his condescending manner nothing seemed odd. I and Suzie took several pictures, inside and out, just in case.

We were back outside one of the cafés uploading photos when we met the local police chief, Sgt Taylor. We said we were acting suspicious. I said I was on my school's newspaper and was writing an article on the furthest you could get from Thurso! He laughed and said we had to try the next island, St Agnes, to be certain we had the facts right. He had a pile of stickers in his hands so I asked what he was doing. He said these were part of a seatbelt campaign on the Scilly Isles as apparently many locals didn't bother. He was giving away window stickers to remind drivers and passengers and said the campaign was working, he hadn't issued a ticket for several days.

We were then able to put our bags in our room, it was a twin room of course. We couldn't get hold of Heather but found she'd been taaken into hospital after being injured, we were told she would be fine but not to contact her for a day or so.

Emily called me later on and asked that we went down to the harbour late afternoon to watch out for a boat coming in, but she couldn't give me a description. Anyway, it was easy with these Chinese looking men coming off a launch, one of the locals called it a tender. What was surprising was that the CEO of the chandlers was there to meet them. We started to follow but there was a danger we'd be spotted so we went into a pub to wait, having a soft drink as we'd been warned to stay off the alcohol.

I sent the new photos to Emily and had a text message asking that we note when they left, that was over an hour later and we had to go to the loo separately so one of us could keep an eye out of the window.

I saw them coming back so we waited until they'd gone past before walking out of the pub and going to sit across the harbour from where the tender was moored. We started giggling about something silly so they would know we were there but would disregard us immediately, that way I was able to get some dodgy pictures on my phone.

Once that was done we headed back to the guest house.

 
Sunday 5th April Easter Sunday

We went out just after breakfast and were startled by the siren starting as the police Landrover went up towards the chandlers. We started walking up there but one of the staff came out to stop anyone going in, she did not look well and told us that the CEO had been murdered, she'd found him when she opened up that morning.

That shocked both of us, we'd only seen him last night, although suspicion had to fall on those Chinese looking guys. I called Emily straight away and gave her the news, she said she had to contact Jenny to decide what to do. In the end we were told to speak to the guest house to see if we could extend our stay by a couple of days. We then heard that the ferry had been cancelled and no-one was allowed off the island for a few hours, if not longer.

We wandered around and took more photos then went to a café to listen to the gossip. Virtually no-one had seen the Chinese guys - which Emily later told me were North Koreans! - but what was strange was that the boat Chandler's Boy was missing but no-one knew who could have taken it, so assumed it must have been someone from the mainland.

I sent Emily an update then we went for some lunch. When she called us, later that afternoon, Jenny had obviously been briefed by Emily but told Suzie she'd have to use the other identities and that we would fly out on Tuesday. I asked Suzie what that was all about but she just told me not to worry.

A load of extra police arrived on the island that lunchtime, that made it difficult to take photos without raising suspicions so we settled into the pub for the afternoon, on soft drinks again. Some of the language in there was nasty but we were hearing stories of dodgy deals, not all of which had to be true!

The ferry was allowed to run late in the afternoon, that gave us a chance to speak to one of the ferry operatives about sending Suzie's car back, apparently they have to do this from time to time so it's not a problem, just a twenty in their pocket for the hassle; we already had a return ticket.

We decided on an early night after dinner.

 
Monday 6th April

The chandlers was still off limits on Monday morning and the whole island was subdued. There was a rumour that Chandlers Boy had been found in Newlyn but there was no sign of anyone and nobody knew for sure, and there was me thinking that school rumours were strange.

Suzie didn't like the atmosphere at all, I'm sure she'd have gone back if it weren't for Jenny's instructions. We spent some time in the cafe again, they knew what drinks we wanted and the locals all chatted to us so it wasn't difficult to hear what was going on, just a question of how much was relevant - did we really need to know about Mrs Scott's cat going missing?

The extra police were gone by lunchtime, but the chandlers was still closed, so there was no chance of looking in there. We walked around the town, into the old town, around the bay to the south, then back to the harbour. Really we were just wasting time. Lunch was fishy, for a change, then we found we had fish for dinner as well!

 
Tuesday 7th April

We checked out straight after breakfast and asked for a ride to the airport to get our nine o'clock flight. That was when Suzie gave me my passport in the name of Beccy Adams, while she was Sarah Jones. Talk about weird! We collected our tickets at the check-in and, as we only had hand luggage, went straight through into the lounge.

The flight was comfortable, but that's about all I can say. It was strange being called Miss Adams though!

At Newquay we met with 'Aunt' Heather and her friend Jo, who I think was a nurse. Then we flew onto Stansted were we were met by Val, from Suzie's office. She drove us to this big house in the countryside.

Abigail Adams House sign

Who was Abigail Adams, was she a relative of Beccy Adams?

tammy simple sig

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Comments

oh dear!

I hope our girls diary is written in encrypted form and totally secret or Auntie Sophie and Auntie Heather will be very cross with her.

Kim Jun-Il Was Here!

joannebarbarella's picture

You definitely can't trust those North Koreans. You have to wonder what they were expecting to gain from the Scilly Isles, apart from murdering someone who may have been inconvenient.

Our girls seem to have acted very sensibly and not got themselves into trouble, more so than their so-called mentors.

A great lot of undercover

A great lot of undercover work is just sitting around doing surveillance work. Long, boring hours filled with tedium and then possibly rapid, hear racing, action. Been there, done that.
So I can sympathize with Tammy and Susie on this job. At least they did get to move around the small town some.
Janice

The Cat Was a Witness...

…to the murder, so the North Koreans disposed of it. (Wikipedia says that a tonic made from boiled cat meat is a Korean folk remedy for arthritis. I wonder if someone on board had sore knees.)

Had a more serious comment here about the whole fake passport thing, but answered my own question: Tammy didn't have a "need to know" until the situation arose, so keeping her in the dark until the actual flight made sense for them. I'm not sure how much difference it made; if someone had wanted to stop them it would have been easier during their ride to the airport, when they were still Tammy and Suzie, than later. And if someone wanted to see who'd meet them at Newquay, photos of the two of them (emailed from the island) would make more sense than trying to match names.

Eric

Driving test

Tony had told be not to just use the mirrors but to make sure the examiner saw me using the mirrors.

This silliness applies to drivers' tests in Poland too.

taking a driver's test

Julia Miller's picture

I found when taking a driver's test, I just kept talking and saying things, like checking my rearview mirror, checking the side mirrors, putting on my left signal, seeing people on the crosswalk, and stopping. I kept it up the whole way through the test and the examiner never told me to shut up. Passed the test too.

Crash course

Jamie Lee's picture

Tammy is getting a real crash course in what happens in field work, yet she could have been a liability for not having actual training before being thrown into the deep end.

Still, according to her diary, their job went well. The real problem, when she returns to Thurso, is Tanya wanting to know about everything she did while away. And knowing Tanya, "I can't talk about it" won't satisfy her. Even though she's had the meeting with Dave.

Others have feelings too.

More St. Mary's chandlery dodginess...

Either the CEO's changed since the accounts were audited, or he somehow managed to get mixed up in illegal activity himself - possibly the latter, given his boat was involved. Hopefully we'll get more details in UG3, given the operations are related to one of the cases there. It also seems as though Heather's made a bit of an impression, given the revamped mansion outside London has been renamed after her alias at the time of her stay - and it's also interesting that Suzie and Tammy were allowed to drive up using the main entrance in daylight, rather than either at night time or the secret, disguised entrance.


As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!