CHRISTMAS 1976
Blue had cooled down by mid and late December. We saw him from time to time but there was hardly any talk of Bill or cocaine. There were still times he came to visit us and chat for a while. On one such occasion, he left behind his wallet. That was careless of him. As a natural detective thing, we examined the contents. There was a telegram from Bill with coded details of cocaine prices. A small address book was also in the wallet.
We arranged to meet up with Vince Castle. He was a Gloucester Detective Sergeant and a key member of the Julie Squad. The meet was in a secluded spot. Eric handed him the wallet. Vince went off alone to copy the documents for evidential purposes. On his return with the original documents, he made a point of asking how we were. Vince was a great guy and a good detective. I sensed there was a hidden agenda. Asking him what lay behind the question, he told us that Lee was becoming worried about us.
We had now been deep undercover for six months and Lee was anxious about our welfare, as was Vince. We shrugged it off and reassured him that we were fine. Dick Lee, in his book12 would have it that he was so concerned, he invited us to see him and Vince Castle at Bronwydd, the rented cottage that housed the Kemp/Bott surveillance team. That was incorrect. Or, as they say in Liverpool - a load of bollocks! Eric and I never went there and in fact, to this day, I have no idea about its location. Vince Castle returned the telegram and address book to us. In turn, we replaced them in Blue’s wallet in exactly the same state as we had found them. The following day we returned the wallet and its contents to an unsuspecting Blue.
***
The telephone intercept was still intact at Y Glyn. One conversation excited Lee. It appeared Spenceley was arranging to meet Smiles for a handover of a large quantity of LSD. The handover was planned to take place in a pub called the Black Lion in Lampeter. Lee asked us to go to this pub and observe the handover, first inquiring if we felt it safe to do so. Our view was that the venue was a pub. It was nearby in Lampeter. It followed that we felt Smiles would not have become paranoid about seeing us in a pub in Lampeter. Pubs were our natural habitat. The layout of the pub was such that Smiles and Buzz did not see us. We could see them, but Spenceley failed to show up.
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