Kate's Longest Night by Ann Reader

This is the longest night I have ever known” said Kate as she stifled a yawn and accepted a chewing gum from DC Rob Chapman. 

They were in an unmarked car in a car park on the edge of the local country park.  The drug squad had received intelligence that a large quantity of heroin was to be delivered to one of the car parks around the country park. Unfortunately they didn’t know which one.  An operation was in place. Unmarked cars with two occupants were in each of the four car parks. Other cars were strategically parked in laybys around the edge of the country park.

The car park assigned to Kate and Rob was well known as a rendezvous for courting couples. In the earlier part of the evening there had been quite a lot of activity with couples arriving clearly intent on enjoying amorous activity in the privacy of their vehicles. Kate and Rob had amused themselves by guessing which ones came because they were still living with parents and had nowhere else to go, and which, usually the ones who came in separate cars, were actually attached to someone else. They had occasionally had to jump into each other’s arms to protect their cover. The effort of trying to appear to be involved in heavy petting while not actually touching eachother had caused considerable hilarity. Fortunately laughter was not inconsistent with their roles and provided good cover in itself. They were both satisfied that all the visitors to their car park were genuine courting couples and not involved in any illegal activity.

By about midnight all the other cars had left the car park. It was now 4 am and there had been no human activity for several hours. The biggest issue was staying awake. Their car was hidden in a corner of the carpark in the hope it would not attract the attention of any other vehicles pulling in through the gates. They dare not play on their mobile phones as the light would alert anyone to the fact that their car was occupied. Additionally they had been told to leave all channels of communication free so that which ever car spotted the dealers could call for back up in whichever way seemed safest in the circumstances. They chewed chewing gum and did their best to find things to talk about in whispered voices.

Suddenly a whispered message came over the radio at the same time as a group message on their phones. ‘ Two vehicles have pulled into Beech Road car park backup needed ‘  Kate swung into action immediately. Beech road was less than half a mile away,  She and Rob were probably the closest unit. She fired up the ignition and was pulling out of the carpark within seconds. She decided against using the siren as she feared that would alert the target and give them a chance to get away.

As she arrived at Beech Road carpark she saw two cars parked close together and a dark coloured plain clothes car in the corner. She hoped their own car had been as well hidden, she felt she only saw it because she knew it was there. She took a split second decision and manoeuvred her car to completely block the entrance to the car park. If the intelligence they had was correct she was not going to risk that amount of heroin getting onto the street. She hoped the other units were not too far behind. 

Everything seemed to happen at once. The target car started its engine and turned its lights on full beam momentarily blinding Kate . The other car was facing into the car park, it began to manoeuvre to turn around. Someone got out of that car and began to run into the country park, fortunately one of the officers from the car assigned to this car park was out of his car and gaining on him. It was only a moment before he was tackled to the ground. Kate feared that her car would be rammed and wondered how much trouble she would be in if her actions lead to one of the forces cars being written off.  Just then three more cars arrived with sirens blaring. The occupants of the target car gave up.

That night four people were arrested and 5 kilos of heroin were recovered.

Far from being in trouble Kate found herself being praised for her quick thinking that had prevented the criminals escaping. The superintendent had even suggested that maybe the time and come for her to study for her sergeant’s exam. Kate reflected it was a very long night but in the end a very satisfying one.