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draw. He watched as the small group climbed on board the cruiser and started to make the craft ready to sail away. With the binoculars held to his eyes with one hand, the killer made ready to perform the favour for a Friend. When the rumble of the engine sounded across the water, and Charlie Trench square in the view of his 'glasses' on the bridge, the killer reached over and pushed the switch of the remote controller forward. This caused a solenoid valve, newly installed in the fuel lines, to open, allowing petrol to flood into the bilges of the craft opposite. The sniffer, deactivated at the switch, did not detect the build-up of fumes in the engine space. After a three minute delay, in order to get a good mix of petrol and fumes in the bilges, Steven Hardy first depressed the activate switch on the tape player, then flicked the transmitter on to full power. The coded signal travelled the short distance to the hull of the cruiser and was accepted by the receiver. The receiver read the code, decided it had not been corrupted by outside interference and operated an electronic relay. This relay completed a circuit between wiring from the main battery to a detonator embedded in a three pound lump of plastic explosive secured to the outside of the centre fuel tank. The resultant explosion blew the two small girls into a bloody heap in the main cabin, decapitated Joanne Trench as she watched her husband start to manoeuvre the cruiser from the dock, but by the freaks associated with high explosive, threw Charlie Trench thirty feet into the air, away from the boat, and into the river.

The assassin did not wait to see if the body flopping into the water was dead or not, but grabbed the rifle and raised it to the ready position, slapping a round into the breech and swinging it up to fire. He searched the water around the stern of the burning cruiser, but could not spot a target. Lowering the rifle, he scooped up the binoculars to scan, once again, the area for any sign of the body of Charlie Trench. He was alerted to the shouting from the bankside that the police contingent were now on their way, and even if unsuccessful, he would have to depart. The cruiser burned fiercely, with dull crackling and an occasional gout of flame and smoke. There was not a trace of the figure of his main target as his small craft slowly swung round and headed away from the killing ground.