Tears of Love

Shortly after, the Catholic Archbishop arrived and was again ushered in to the small reception room and to the large red sofa by the same officer. Almost immediately, the same waitress resurfaced by the red sofa and conducted him to the large meeting room. Once they got close to the door, the waitress went back to attend to some other duties while the Archbishop walked inside. On arriving inside he found no one there. He waited a couple of minutes and then walked back to the security by the entrance hall to ask of the PM and the Archbishop. He was told that they were in the large meeting room or some other rooms. It was easy to get lost in a house with about 100 rooms inside. No one had gone out since the arrival of the Archbishop of Canterbury, so they were sure they must be somewhere within the building. They called the waitress and asked about the two men, and she confirmed leaving them in the large meeting room. The police securities together with the waitress went to the meeting room, and saw no one there. Then they started going from room to room with no sight of them. The Prime Minister’s wife was in their third floor private residence when the Prime Minister went down to meet the Archbishop. The waitress went there to inquire if the PM had gone back up, but that wasn’t the case. There were many civil servants, about 152 of them in various offices and he could have walked into any of the offices with the Archbishop. It would be quite embarrassing to announce through the in-house intercom address system seeking the whereabouts of the Prime Minister, so they decided to allow some time to elapse before raising the alarm, while rather silently and slowly conducting their search. Even the 3rd floor apartment wardrobes, the loft and the manhole in the garden were not spared. The waitress and a number of domestic staff together with police officers on guard duties were detained and questioned. Over an hour down the line and no clues as to where they were, it was time to alert everyone in the building. So the fire alarm was activated and everyone rushed to the designated assembling point, but both men were the only people missing. The fire alarm simulated a test trigger and so did not attract the response of fire service crew. That was the first time it downed on them that both men had really gone missing. Police reinforcement was requested and a thorough search conducted within and outside the building including hidden areas under shrubs and trees in the garden and all surrounding areas without success. Attempts at contact through their mobile phones yielded no result as the phones were dead – possibly switched off. When strange things happen, the mind sometimes resorts to the absurd in the search for clues. The small reception room at No 10 has a stack of small pigeon-hole type boxes on the left side, each with a numbered ticket. The tickets are taken by visitors after depositing their personal items such as mobile phones, iPods, iPads, etc which they retrieve on their way out. Even these small boxes were not spared in the search for two full grown adults. Abnormal situations do necessitate abnormal approaches. There is a link between No 10 and the cabinet office in Whitehall; this was also thoroughly searched, even with the use of police sniffer dogs but to no avail. Lots of CCTVs were examined but yielded no fruit. The alarm was then officially raised with informing the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, the Home Secretary, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Defence Secretary, and senior cabinet members. The Prime Minister’s wife was immediately taken away to a secret location for her safety, even though No 10 was full of security personnel. The Archbishop’s wife was similarly taken away from her Lambeth Palace residence. The Prime Minister and the Archbishop’s phone network providers were contacted to provide detailed information of last contact and last position of phone. The Prime Minister had an App similar to ‘Find my friends’ on one of his mobile phones which included members of his immediate family, and another of his senior cabinet ministers on another of his phones. His wife was in the list of the first group above while the Home Secretary was in the list of the second group. Their phones were used to try and trace his whereabouts but the search only returned ‘Error’ display on the screens. Government Cars Agency of the Department for Transport operates and maintains ministerial cars and stored at No 10. They are driven by specially trained United Kingdom Special Forces (UKSF) close protection drivers, and escorted by Protection Command officers in unmarked Range Rovers. UKSF is under the Ministry of Defence. A search at the pool of cars at the parking lot showed that one of the cars was missing. It was the very car assigned to take him to Chequers that day. The protection officer assigned to drive him that evening was immediately contacted and found to still be in the office awaiting signal to move, and so were Protection Command officers and their escort Range Rovers. This was a big puzzle. Who moved the car from its parked spot; who authorised such movement; where was the car driven through that no one noticed it; where was the car driven to, and so many questions. Vehicles movement log book was checked and found with no details of any movement or signature of authorisation for the particular car. There were always protection officers guarding the pool of cars 24/7 in addition to numerous CCTVs. Yet none of the officers saw the car being driven away and none of the CCTVs captured any movement of the car. Contact with Lambeth Palace returned negative presence of the two men. Contact with staff at Chequers confirmed the Prime Minister had not arrived there.