Leah nodded. “Not his style, granted.”
“CSI found a metal bar in the mill,” Greco continued. “Doctor Atkins is still testing but she thinks it was one of the weapons used on Dent. There are fibres on the bar. She will see if they match those on Dent’s clothing. He has a nasty bruise between his shoulder blades. From where the bar was found it looks as if it was thrown at him, perhaps to stop him running away. A heavy lump hammer was also found. This has traces of tissue and blood on it. They’re testing it for Dent’s DNA. This was the weapon used on his hands.” Greco cleared his throat. “The bullet that killed him was not from the Glock.”
“Do we know if the gun has been used previously?” Leah asked.
“The Duggan are checking.”
“So what now?” asked Grace. “Slicer, Tanner and now Dent are all dead. Who are we left with?”
“Cezar Todoran,” replied Greco. “We know he’s involved somewhere. We think he brings the lads in from the Syrian-Turkish border, drives them across Europe and dumps them in Calais.”
“How do they get to England?” asked Leah.
“Amani Ali told us they are stowed away in lorries. Todoran is involved in that too.”
“Surely transport coming in from Calais is checked these days?” Joel Hough said.
“That’s the theory,” Grace replied. “But the fact is, these people are getting through.”
“I did alert Border Control,” Greco told them. “I had a conversation while Grace and I were still in Brighton. I will contact them again. Hopefully they’ve upped security.”
“The smugglers are very clever. The lorries are often adapted to fit in two dozen or more at a time. I saw a documentary on the telly. Lorries built with a space between the outside and fake internal walls. Just enough space for people to sit.” Speedy shook his head.
“There is an alert out for Todoran,” Greco told them. “If he shows his face, we’ve got him.”
“Perhaps, but will he talk to us? I’ve had a run-in with that man. He’s big, ugly and I’d say capable of anything.” Grace shuddered.
“His DNA is on record. If that patch of blood by the mill door is his, he’ll go down for a long time,” Greco told Grace. “And that’s without adding in the trafficking.”
Leah was looking thoughtful. “Back to the problem of who killed Shaw and his driver, sir. Dent was new. But what if he was hungry for power? What if he killed Tanner so that he could get closer to Shaw? When Shaw wouldn’t give him what he wanted, he did him too.”
“Didn’t work though, did it? But we’ll keep an open mind for now. Knowing more about the Glock will help matters.”
Joel looked up from his screen. “Sir, we’ve just had an email back from the IT bloke at the Duggan. Adam Crompton’s browser history has thrown up something. He was searching for hotels in Cheshire. He checked out the website of a guest house in Hazel Grove. It looks like he booked a room.”
“Get the address.” Greco looked at Grace. “We’ll go and take a look. Leah, Speedy, you find out all you can about Hussain Textiles. Joel, get onto the schools. Let’s rule out the placement idea. Anything else from the Duggan, let me know at once.”
“That last message, sir,” Joel began. “It was from an unregistered pay-as-you-go mobile. The message was simple — ‘you are dead.’”
No help at all. Rouse ran because the message scared him. Greco could only hope they found him before the sender did.
* * *
“You look ropey again.”
As blunt as ever. Greco shook his head and handed her the keys. “I’ve had precious little sleep. My head won’t stop.”
“Mine neither, but I bet the reasons are very different.”
“Don’t bring that up again, Grace.” He was sick and tired of her going on about what had happened between them. All he wanted to do was forget, pretend it had never happened. Even Pat kept asking what was wrong. He hadn’t mentioned Grace, but Pat had brought her up. She wanted chapter and verse about how they’d spent their time in Brighton. Apparently when he spoke about Grace, he smiled and appeared more relaxed, so Pat had jumped to the conclusion that he liked her. Which he did. But it was not that simple. He needed time to mull things over.
“At least give it a rest until we’ve sorted this case. How far is Hazel Grove?”
“It’s on the A6, beyond Stockport. If the traffic is kind, it should take us about twenty minutes. That place where Rouse is staying, it’s a backstreet guest house. Cheap and cheerful.”
“He’s hiding. He’s hardly going to make a show of himself, is he?”
“The big question is, who’s he hiding from? Shaw and his mob, or Todoran? Wonder if he knows Shaw is dead? What do you think?”
“I don’t know what to think. I just hope that Rouse is honest with us for once.”
The traffic along the A6 through the town of Hazel Grove was slow. The street they were looking for was off to the left, near the railway station. After a frustrating stop-start drive they spotted the street they wanted.
Greco nodded to a large detached house a good fifty yards or so away. “That’s the place. We’ll park here. I’ll take the front door, you go around the back. He might decide to run for it.”
The front doors were open and led into a wide hallway. There was a desk with a bell, but there was no one about. A door behind the desk had a ‘private’ sign hanging from it. The owner’s rooms no doubt. Greco tapped on it. A man opened it and smiled at them both.
“Are you looking for a room?”
Greco showed him his badge. “No, I’m looking for this man.” He showed him a photo of Rouse.
“Mr Campbell. He is staying here.”
“How long?”
“A couple of days, but I don’t know much about him. Not left the room and had all his meals up there. He is in room twenty, top of the stairs. Do you want me to give him a knock for you? Ask him to come down?”
“No, I’ll surprise him. Has he had any other visitors?” The man shook his head. At that moment Grace appeared at the other end of the hallway.
“This is my colleague. We’ll go up together.” The man didn’t ask questions, but simply nodded in the direction they should go.
“Is he in?” asked Grace.
“Yes. He arrived a couple of days ago and he’s never left the room.”
Rouse was obviously scared. Greco and Grace made their way up the stairs quietly. They stood outside the door and listened for a few moments. They could hear music. Rouse must have the radio on.
“Do we knock?” Grace whispered.
Greco nodded and tapped lightly. “Mr Campbell!” With any luck, Rouse would think it was the owner and answer.
It worked. Seconds later, Rouse stood in the doorway. He froze when he saw the two detectives. Before he could react, Greco had his foot in the door, and a second later they were inside.
Greco stood with his back to the door, blocking any attempt at escape. “The elusive Mr Rouse. We’ve been looking for you for days. You’re a tricky chap to pin down. What, or who, are you hiding from?”
Rouse went to the window and looked up and down the street. “If you can find me, so can they. You shouldn’t have come here, you’ll get us all killed.”
“Who are you talking about?” asked Greco.
“The mob that are after me. The bastards trading in human flesh.” He turned and faced them. “You’ve investigated, you know what I’m talking about. I saw things, asked questions, so now I’m a marked man. They know I’ve spoken to you lot. Adam was killed as a warning to me. I was supposed to stop, give up the story, lighten up. But I didn’t. The day I left Manchester, I had literally minutes to get away.”
“You shot a hole in your own bathroom wall and smeared it with pig’s blood!” Grace told him. “How was that supposed to help?”
“With luck, they’d have thought I was dead. Presumed that Slicer had had me taken out like the lads and Adam. It worked, up to a point. But you lot kept sniffing around
. I know they are still looking. The newspaper office was visited. They scared Anna witless.”
“No one reported it,” said Grace.
“She was too frightened. They told her if she went to the police they’d kill her.”
“You went to Brighton, spoke to Amani Ali. You hurt her.” Greco crossed his arms.
“That was a mistake. I meant her no harm. I simply wanted to talk. It was her kid brother that got knifed. I hoped to get some background, that was all. I grabbed her arm to stop her running. She struggled and screamed. Said I’d broken it.”
“She wouldn’t speak to you?”
“She was too scared. Bright girl!”
“Who is it you’re afraid of, Mr Rouse? Shaw and his driver are dead, so they are no threat to you. We have it on good authority that Costello is ill. So, I ask again, just who is so terrifying?”
He looked them up and down. Was he trying to decide whether to confide in them? Finally he shook his head. “No, I value my life. If I tell you what I know, they’ll kill me. This operation that I have been investigating is big. The people at the top would think nothing of taking us all out to save their skins — me and the pair of you — if it suited them. I’m about to do a deal with one of the dailies. The money they are paying will set me up in a new life abroad.”
Greco heaved a sigh and sat down on a chair. “It’d take a whole lot of money to do that, Mr Rouse. It would be far better to speak to us. Tell us what you know and we will protect you. We’ll put you somewhere safe until we’ve got whoever you’re so scared of under lock and key.”
Rouse shook his head. “That won’t happen. They’re far too clever. They’ve got their lethal tentacles everywhere, even the nick. Besides which they’ll have alibis coming out of their ears before you lot get your backsides in gear.”
They were getting nowhere. “Mr Rouse, you are giving me no choice but to arrest you. Lock you up until you talk to us.”
“On what grounds? I’ve done nowt wrong, you’ve got nothing on me.”
Greco snapped back, “At the very least you have obstructed our investigation, withheld important information. You know things, you’ve admitted as much. Now talk to me, or I’ll take you back to the station.”
Grace’s mobile rang. It was Joel Hough. She went out onto the landing to take the call. Moments later, she was back in Rouse’s room.
“We need to get going, sir. Something’s happened. A kid from that factory has been found. He’d been taken to Manchester General. We are keeping an eye on him and he wants to talk to someone.”
Rouse made no comment.
Greco handcuffed him, and they led him, protesting, out to the car. Greco wanted to keep the man safe. Put him somewhere where he could talk to him without having to scour Greater Manchester to do so.
Once they were on their way, Rouse leaned forward.
“This kid. Where’s he from?”
“Sorry, Rouse, I can’t tell you that,” Greco looked at the man’s grim face. “Irritating, isn’t it?”
“Doesn’t matter. I can guess. He’ll be an illegal. He’s either scarpered from some backstreet sweatshop, or that hospital in Chorlton. Which is it?”
Greco smiled. “No comment.”
Chapter 24
“The lad climbed out through a broken window,” Joel explained to Greco. “He gashed his arm badly. The nurse who rang said he was going for an X-ray to make sure there was no glass in there, but it would definitely need stitching.”
“What was her name?”
“Molly Crompton, sir.”
“Rouse will be okay in the cells for a while. Get him some tea and a sandwich. The minute he decides he wants to talk, call me.”
Grace looked impatient. “I wonder if it was the lad we saw when we visited. He must have guessed we were police when he saw how agitated his boss was. We need to get back to that factory before they clean the place up.”
“We’ll speak to the lad first. See what he can tell us. We can’t just go barging in there without solid evidence,” Greco told her.
“Interesting that it was Crompton’s wife who rang us.”
“She’s as keen to get to the bottom of this as we are.”
They drove to the hospital in silence, each mulling over the day’s events. Grace was worried about the lad and what he might have been through. Greco was irritated at Rouse’s refusal to help them.
They parked up and went to the renal unit to find Molly Crompton. She was standing at the nurse’s station on the corridor.
“He’s not very well at all. A badly cut arm and a nasty infection.” So much for patient confidentiality. “He’s young, about sixteen I’d say. He says he’s alone and I’ve no reason to disbelieve him. So there is no adult we can call on. I have contacted social services and immigration . . .” She shrugged. “I had no choice. I suspect he’s in the country illegally. Apart from which, I’m concerned about what has happened to him. Whoever was keeping that boy needs punishing. Animals shouldn’t be kept in such conditions.”
“Does he speak English?”
“Fortunately he does.”
“Can we see him?” asked Greco.
She nodded and led the way. “His name is Farid. He thinks he’s been in the country about three months. He got here in a heavy goods vehicle. He thought he was going to start a new life. He wouldn’t say where he was from.”
The boy was lying on a bed in the renal ward hooked up to a drip. His dark eyes went wide when he spotted the detectives.
“Don’t send me back,” he pleaded.
Grace spoke to him gently. “We are not going to do that, Farid. You will be looked after here, and made well again.”
“Will you tell us how you got here, Farid?” asked Greco. “We think you were brought here by some bad people who have done wicked things.”
The boy fell silent for a few moments. His eyes searched Greco’s face. Then he seemed to come to a decision.
“I was taken from our village with some others when the soldiers came. Me and some other boys escaped. We made it to the Turkish border. There we met a man. He was well known among the refugees. If he liked you, he would help.”
“Did he ask for money?” Grace asked.
“A little, whatever you could afford. He said he would take us to Calais. For most of the boys that was it, Calais and no further. But for others, me included, it was different. I don’t know why that was, but I agreed to come to England to work. The man said he would find me a job, but only if I was healthy.”
Greco looked at Grace. This again. “You had blood tests?” he asked.
The boy nodded. “The man said that if the tests were okay, he would bring me to England.”
“Did you start work at that factory straight away?”
Farid looked at Grace and shook his head.
“I was kept somewhere, I don’t know where. There were others like me. No one knew what was going to happen. One boy said we were in the south of England. He kept trying to get away. He had family in London. While we were there we had more blood tests.”
That meant a hospital. “These other boys, do you remember any of their names?” asked Greco.
“I only remember Jamal. He was from my village too. We were together most of the time but when we reached England, we got separated. He was found work near his sister. He was okay, happy to be with her. He tried to get away from the men, to disappear. He kicked off many times. Eventually they locked him up. Wouldn’t let him talk to anyone. Soon after that he was gone. The man said Jamal had been punished, that we’d never see him again. I never knew what really happened.”
Greco decided that this wasn’t the time to tell him.
“Jamal had the same tests as you?”
Farid nodded. “The man who’d brought us to England said we were very lucky to have been chosen.”
“What happened next? How did you end up at the factory?”
He looked at Greco, his eyes wide again. He moved his head from side to side. �
��I hate that place. They use us like slaves. We are not allowed to leave. We have to sleep in a room at the back with nothing but sleeping bags.”
Molly Crompton came in. “Farid has talked for long enough. He really does need to rest. He is quite poorly.”
Grace nodded. “He’ll be worn out, undernourished and very rundown.”
“That we can cope with. It’s the infection that’s proving challenging. We are doing tests but it looks like he’s got MRSA in his wound.”
Greco was puzzled. “What wound? Not the one in his arm, that’s too recent.”
“Sometime during the last month Farid has undergone surgery.”
“What type of surgery?”
Molly Crompton looked at Greco. Her expression was hard. “He was reluctant to tell us at first. Apparently he’d been threatened, told to keep his mouth shut, but we did a CT scan. The lad has had a kidney removed.”
* * *
Once they were back at the station, Greco arranged for Farid to be kept under guard at the hospital. He didn’t want anyone abducting the lad, neither did he want him taking off on his own.
Grace and Greco walked along the corridor to the incident room.
“What does it mean?” she said. “Why would anyone take a kidney?”
Greco’s voice was hard with anger. “To give to someone else. I want another word with Rouse. You go and tell the team what we’ve just learned.”
“That would take a surgeon who knew what he was doing. Plus an operating theatre, facilities. A medical team.” Grace took hold of Greco’s arm and stopped walking. “The Rashid Clinic! This is down to them, isn’t it?”
Greco didn’t reply. Instead he turned on his heel and walked off towards the cells. He had Tony Rouse taken to an interview room.
They sat staring at each other. “Organ donation — or rather organ theft. Is that what this is all about?”
“Clever copper, aren’t you? It took you long enough though.”
“How long have you known?”
Rouse’s eyes narrowed. “Who’ve you got in custody?”
Greco looked at him. “Why? Who should we have brought in?”
“Look, I’m saying nowt until the people behind this are under lock and key. You might think I’m safe in here, but if I talk and they find out, I’m a dead man, locked up or not.”
Complete Detective Stephen Greco Box Set Page 53