Welcome Colin.
I did a lot of digging back when this surfaced. I wonder if the following mean anything to you.
10f26link.jpg
From the 10f26 blog:
"Part 52
by Steve
Vehicles and debris spread across the southbound carriageway of the M6. Judging by the amount of debris I think there must have been about fifteen to twenty vehicles involved in the crash. But even though we were in the midst of such a large accident, there was relative calm as the uniformed officers went about attending those caught up in the mass of metal and smoke.
With everything that was going on before us it would have been easy to dismiss our presence on the grass verge as purely voyeuristic; we had no injuries to suggest we had been involved in the crash. Officers attending the scene were, fortunately, too pre-occupied to do anything about our presence apart from occasionally glance over.
'Where's your car?', I asked Roy.
Roy was holding the CCS device in the palm of his hand, seemingly oblivious to my question. Without looking up at me he pointed over to the one of the mangled wrecks, which was now in silhouette against the dropping sun.
'I think you'll find it's over there', finally he looked up to acknowledge my presence and pointed across the motorway towards a cluster of cars.
Roy's car was about two or three cars in from the side where we were stood, it was difficult to tell exactly such was the tangle of metal. The bonnet bent upwards towards the sky, blackened from the fires and the cars that surrounded it were smouldering, producing an acrid smoke that hung heavy in the failing light.
'In flames?', I said, nervous at the suggestion of having to confront the carnage.
'Maybe but the laptop will be in tact and we need to get this one back before it falls into the wrong hands'
I focused on the car Roy had pointed towards, mindful of the police and fire officers who were in close attendance. They were constantly picking up small pieces of wreckage from the accident, possibly for evidence and were also cordoning off the site with the familiar bright yellow perimeter tape.
Ambulance workers were now busy administering triage and loading the accident victims onto the ambulances at the back of the crash site. One of the ambulances sped off up the slip road, lights flashing and siren echoing around the immediate vicinity until it disappeared over the top of the slip road.
There were a few walking wounded and others who simply looked bemused as they reconciled themselves with what had just happened. They were caught up in something that wasn't anything to do with them; they were just victims of circumstances they could have no way of understanding.
Roy gestured with his hands, encouraging me to try and recover the laptop; I wasn't so keen. The area was now full of police officers who were now meticulously searching around the wreckage, using high powered torches to penetrate the smoke filled vehicles. The slightest piece of evidence was bagged and taken back to where all the emergency services vehicles were parked.
'How do you propose I get through that lot to the car?', I looked at Roy and pointed to all the officers.
As I said this one of the officers approached the grass verge where we were stood, looking surprised by our presence.
'Can you move away now gentlemen, let the officers do their work, it's not a side show', he waved his arms signaling we should leave the crash scene.
I turned to Roy, 'we've no chance, this place is sealed off, we're not going to be able to get hold of that laptop'
With all the background noise and police activity I lost focus on the officer who was now stood only a few metres away from us.
'What's this then Sir? What laptop? Were you involved in the accident?', the officer moved closer.
The difficulties associated with how I could try and explain what really happened were perhaps not hard to fathom.
'He meant the laptop his colleague had left in one of the cars involved in the crash', Roy jumped in to try and save us any further awkward questions.
'Really Sir, and what could be so important about the laptop that would mean you risking getting hurt trying to retrieve it?', the officer stopped walking towards us and clicked a button on his radio and spoke into it, 'do you want to come down here Sir, think I may have someone here who will interest you'
'I can assure you that this won't be necessary, we'll move on, don't worry about the laptop', I tried to broker a situation where we could simply leave before it got any worse.
'I'm afraid that's not possible Sir, it's too late for that', the officer reaffirmed his position by moving slightly closer to Roy and I, 'oh and keep your hands where I can see them please'
'You should have stayed where you were', a voice emanated from behind the officer stood in front of us,'thank you officer I'll take it from here'
The officer retreated to the crash scene to continue with his duties.
'Silverton, I should have guessed', I looked him straight in the eye and shook my head.
'Do you know what one of the pleasures of my job is?', Silverton had a tone of self-satisfaction as he smirked at Roy and I, 'it's knowing that after all these years I can still rely on instinct'
Roy made a crude attempt to get hold of the CCS device in his pocket.
'No you don't. Not this time', Silverton pulled out a gun,'they'll be none of that this time. Toss it over here', Silverton's outstretched hand took hold of the device from Roy.
'A gun? What happened to using only peaceful means to achieve our objectives?', I was incensed by Silverton's actions.
'Well those are your rules. Mine are simple; get the job done. And in this case the job was all about capturing the laptop', Silverton seemed pleased with his work, possibly unable to understand what he was doing, 'and hopefully you two in the process'
'And what about the cost?', I asked.
'It's a cost we'll not have to worry about for a long time. After all, we've got all the time we could possibly need now haven't we?', with that Silverton looked at the CCS device in his hand and smiled at us both"