Shut Up and Drive: DI Ted Darling Book 4

by L M Krier

  'Darling, eh?' she asked, looking from the cards to Ted. 'Can't have been easy, growing up with a moniker like that.' She turned her attention back to Sal as she asked, 'What do you want this time?'

  'May we come in, Mrs Marston? It's not all that warm, standing out here,' Ted said reasonably.

  Without a word, she swung the rusty gate open on its sagging hinges to let them in, then stumped off back to the office, calling over her shoulder as she went, 'Shut the gate after you.'

  The smell inside the cabin was overpowering. Either the woman had the most appalling case of flatulence or it was coming from the indeterminate ball of fur curled up, snoring, on a chair in the corner. An ancient portable gas fire didn't smell too healthy, but even its fumes were barely disguising the noxious smells. Ted wondered if the woman had simply become so accustomed to the stench that she no longer noticed it, although he found that hard to believe.

  She sat back down at a table strewn with paperwork, with a surprisingly new-looking laptop computer amongst the chaos. She didn't invite them to sit down and, looking at the stains on the various available chairs, neither of them felt much like doing so.

  'What do you want this time?' she asked again, although her eyes were on the computer screen, checking her emails, as she spoke.

  'Mrs Marston, we urgently need to set up a meeting with the man Danny who, I understand, does deliveries for you sometimes. Now, you kindly gave DC Ahmed his mobile number, but he is likely to be very suspicious of anyone he doesn't know. I need to ask you if you would be prepared to phone him and ask him to come here? Police officers would then be on hand, on your premises, with your permission, to arrest him when he arrives.'

  She turned away from the computer screen, her dark eyes suddenly interested. She was, Ted guessed, in her mid to late fifties and looked, like the whole of the place, a stranger to hygiene.

  'What's in it for me if I help you?'

  'There can be no financial reward, Mrs Marston, if that is what you're asking me. I would simply say that you could consider it a civic duty. We have reason to believe that Danny may be a dangerous individual, someone we are most anxious to take into custody for questioning. I can assure you that you would be protected. In fact, we would need you to leave the premises at the time of the meeting.'

  'I'm not leaving the dogs,' she said immediately. 'Who knows what would happen to them with a load of flat-footed coppers trampling round the place. Anyway, Danny would expect to see me here.'

  'Mrs Marston, we would need to have armed officers on the premises, so for that reason, we would normally clear the area of civilians. I cannot stress enough that we believe this man may be dangerous, and is most probably armed. Do you live on site? Is there somewhere safe you could be, somewhere away from this building, and from the entrance.'

  'I've got a mobile home, round behind the kennels. I'll go there, but no further. All right, if I agree to do it, when do you want him here?'

  'We would need some time to prepare, so not before tomorrow at the earliest,' Ted told her.

  'And none of the dogs would be harmed? You wouldn't be bringing police dogs in?'

  'No police dogs would be involved in the operation, and we would do our utmost to protect the safety of anyone on the premises, including your dogs,' Ted said guardedly.

  Without replying, the woman started to rummage around amongst the paperwork until she found a mobile phone. She made a call and put it to her ear.

  'Danny? Pat Marston here, love. Got a few puppies to be shifted from my place down to London, as soon as you can. A decent rate for you, while it's a bit of a rush job. Call me back as soon as you can, love.'

  She looked from Ted to Sal. 'He sometimes calls back fairly quickly, it just depends where he is and what he's up to.'

  'Have you known him long?' Ted asked.

  'I don't know him, not really. He's just done some driving for me, on and off, over the past couple of years. He's usually pretty reliable.'

  The mobile phone on her desk rang. She looked at the screen, mouthed 'Danny' and took the call.

  'Hello, love, thanks for getting back to me quickly. When are you free?' She looked at Ted as she said, 'Not before the day after tomorrow?' Ted nodded. That would give them more time to prepare. 'All right, love, that's fine. There's just a half dozen pups to go down to the usual drop-off. Can you be here by ten, then I'll have all the paperwork ready for you? Thanks, love.'

  She ended the call, then looked at Ted again. 'This better all be on the level. I don't want to lose a reliable driver if you lot have bungled things as usual. And you'll have to pay for any damage you cause.'

  'Mrs Marston, did Danny ever arrive with fewer puppies on the van than you were expecting?' Ted asked her.

  She looked at him suspiciously. 'Once,' she said grudgingly. 'He said one had been seized at the port because there was a mix-up with the paperwork. I didn't follow it up. It would probably have cost me more than I paid for the pup to sort it all out.'

  'Once we get our operation out of the way the day after tomorrow, I should be in a position to tell you a little bit more about the man who has been transporting puppies for you. Including the story behind that missing pup. Thank you for your help. I'll be in touch.'

  Ted felt contaminated when he got back into the car. Not just from the smell and the squalor of the place but from the thought of how the whole operation was run. He'd heard terms like puppy farming but hadn't really had any concept of what went on in the dog world. He felt sickened by what he had learned so far. He was looking forward to giving the RSPCA the green light to go in, the minute they had Danny in custody.

  Back at the station, Mike Hallam had an update for them.

  'Boss, the Super came up with the goods. Army records emailed me some more detail on Danny, that wasn't on the original files they sent over. He divorced his first wife when she ran off with another soldier from the same regiment as him, while he was serving overseas. He married again, a much younger woman. She was killed on active service, just around the time that Danny left the forces. No children from either marriage.'

  'So if the tours of duty he's done didn't leave him disturbed, it's just possible that that tipped him over the edge? That makes him even more dangerous than I feared,' Ted replied. 'He has nothing left to live for.'

  Chapter Thirty

  Ted was accompanied by the Ice Queen and Kevin Turner the following morning for a thorough recce of the dog dealer's site. They were joined by a firearms inspector, Paul Jenkins. Ted and the Ice Queen knew him, both of them having served in firearms previously.

  One of the reasons the Ice Queen commanded respect was that, unlike a lot of the modern generation of senior officers, whose role was more politics than policing, she had done her share in the front line.

  The four of them arrived in her car, wearing dark coats over their uniforms, Ted in his hated suit and tie, with his raincoat over the top. Hopefully, if Danny was watching the place for any reason, they might just pass for visiting Environmental Health inspectors.

  'We're going to need a way to block off the end of the lane if and when he arrives, to stop him getting away if he rumbles us. And that's not going to be easy. There's no cover at all for waiting vehicles. If we have them holed up too far away, they won't be able to get there quickly enough if he smells a rat,' Inspector Jenkins said. 'And if he's as savvy as you say, Ted, he'll be on the look-out for the slightest thing.

  'There is a bit of cover along that lane, so I could possibly put someone in there with a stinger, as back-up. We need a sure way of stopping him reaching the road and turning it into a car chase, with all the dangers that would entail. Plus the risk of losing him, if there's no authorisation to exceed the speed limit in pursuit.

  'I imagine he'll be something of an expert in urban warfare, including assessing for ambush, from some of the places he's served. Not least from his days in Northern Ireland. And the same goes for getting my officers in here, out of sight. There's not a lot of cover, if
he's watching us from a distance.'

  'From the look of this place, it wouldn't seem out of the ordinary to bring in something like a pest control van, with your firearms officers and some of mine in it,' Kevin Turner said thoughtfully.

  'What about dog food delivery?' the Ice Queen suggested. 'I imagine a place like this buys in bulk, assuming they actually feed the poor dogs? That might possibly be an even better cover. Or perhaps they use other delivery drivers for moving dogs around?'

  'The owner will certainly be able to fill us in on that,' Ted said, as the four of them got out of the car and made their way towards the gate. As before, Pat Marston appeared from the cabin as she saw them approaching.

  'How much can we trust her?' the Ice Queen asked quietly.

  'Probably not a lot,' Ted told her frankly. 'Worryingly, though, at the moment, she is our best chance.'

  He approached the gate and said, 'Mrs Marston, these are my colleagues, Superintendent Caldwell and Inspectors Turner and Jenkins. Is there somewhere we could talk, please? Rather than standing around outside in the cold, looking suspicious?'

  The look she was giving the four of them was definitely one of suspicion.

  'We won't all fit in the cabin. I suppose you'd better come round to the mobile home,' she said grudgingly.

  Ted fervently hoped that her living accommodation might smell better than her workspace. They picked their way carefully through mud, past ramshackle outbuildings, where dogs and puppies were crammed into dark, confined pens and what looked like old pigsties. The noise of the dogs and the stench of their excrement made him want to gag. When they got to the mobile home and followed the woman inside, there was the same smell, just to a lesser intensity.

  She led them to a small kitchen area at one end of the caravan. Every visible surface was dirty and grease-encrusted and their feet stuck to the filthy lino as they crossed it.

  'There aren't enough stools for everyone to sit down. You'll have to fight over them,' the woman told them. 'I suppose I could make you a cup of tea, if you're going to be long?'

  The chorus of refusals was instant and unanimous. None of them fancied drinking out of anything in that squalor.

  The Ice Queen assumed charge. 'Mrs Marston, thank you for allowing us to use your premises. I understand that this man Danny is due here tomorrow morning at ten. Is he usually punctual?'

  'Always on the button, sometimes a bit early. Ex-Army, he tells me, and it shows in his timekeeping.'

  'In that case, I want to have all our officers in place by eight o'clock, so we won't be caught unawares. I'm sorry if that is an inconvenience to you. We will need you to remain in here, until the operation is concluded. An officer will stay with you to ensure your safety. If there is anything which needs doing to your dogs, it will need to be before eight o'clock, I'm afraid.'

  'I can give the little buggers extra food tonight,' she said. 'That way it won't matter if I'm a bit later than usual with their brekky.'

  From the way she said it, Ted had a feeling that it wouldn't be the first time the dogs in her care had missed a meal. Although it was not within his own remit, he hoped someone would take action soon to get the place sorted out.

  'Has Danny been in contact with you since your phone call yesterday, while DI Darling was here?' the Ice Queen asked.

  The woman shook her head. 'No, but I wouldn't have expected him to. He knows the routine. When I call him for a delivery, he just turns up at the time I tell him to and does the job. That's why I use him.'

  'I cannot stress enough that it is absolutely essential you don't talk to him at all, from now on. If for any reason he should try to contact you, please do not take his call. You should not discuss anything about the operation with anyone for whatever reason.'

  She went on to explain in broad terms how the operation would unfold, then asked the woman about what sort of a van could be parked at the premises, without looking too suspicious.

  'There is a van comes round, a young chap, who sells dog food, wellies, overalls, that sort of stuff out of the back of it. It's not knock-off, it's on the level, but his prices are good. I buy stuff from him. Winter socks, for one.'

  The van, she told them, was a plain white Transit, with no logos. Good news for the operation. They had plenty available which would fit the bill. It meant they could transport officers to the scene without arousing suspicion. It could then be parked not far away, ready to block the lane end when Danny showed up.

  The smell in the confined space suddenly intensified noticeably. Ted realised he might have done the old dog an injustice, blaming it for the atmosphere in the cabin. He wondered if the woman was a drinker, which was causing her digestive problems, as well as possibly explaining the state the place was in. There must be a reason why she lived in the conditions she did.

  They now had the information which they had come for and were keen to get away. The Ice Queen thanked the woman again for her cooperation and led the way back to her car. None of the four officers offered to shake her hand before leaving. Once they were all inside and on their way, she said, 'Inspector Turner, what is the situation with the RSPCA and their inspection visit on that vile place?'

  'Ma'am, they're waiting to hear from me on the outcome of tomorrow's operation. Clearly, I didn't want them going in first and spoiling the one chance we have to date of bringing Danny Boy to us.'

  'Ask them to be on stand-by to go in, the minute we have completed our operations. I want that abomination closed down as soon as possible. If I can do anything at all to expedite matters, in terms of sorting out warrants or anything, do please let me know.

  'I think we should now all adjourn to my office for some decent coffee, which might hopefully go some way to getting those disgusting smells out of our nostrils. In fact, why don't I stop somewhere on the way back and buy us all some utterly iniquitous sticky buns to go with it? I think we all deserve something.'

  Ted had thought he was beyond surprises with the changes he was seeing lately in his boss. As hard as this case was proving, it was certainly doing a great deal to improve relations between them.

  Over the promised coffee and cakes, they thrashed out the final details of the forthcoming operation.

  'What's your instinct on this one? Will our man show up?' the Ice Queen asked Ted.

  'You know I'm not into any kind of psychological profiling, nor am I equipped to take even a stab at it,' Ted began. 'But I do have a feeling that Danny doesn't care whether he's caught or not. All the witnesses, including Maurice now, say that he's dead behind the eyes.

  'There is a strong possibility he's had enough. Not only does he not care, he might actually welcome the end, when it comes. Now I've seen more of his record, and thank you for getting that for us, ma'am, I wonder if there's not some degree of guilt in what he's feeling. He did all those tours in countries with high death and injury rates and came out unscathed. Yet his young wife was killed.

  'Something like that must be very hard to live with. I can see how it could drive someone over the edge. Especially if they've been hovering pretty close to it already. It may be that he doesn't care when and how it ends, just that it does.'

  'He wants his Butch Cassidy moment, you mean?' Paul Jenkins asked him. 'Going down in a blaze of glory and a hail of bullets?'

  'I don't want your officers opening fire unless there is absolutely no other option,' the Ice Queen warned him. 'I would personally favour taking him alive, if we can do so, without risk to any officer. I, too, think that the public would like to see him brought to trial. But I must stress to all of you, and please impress it on all of your officers, there must be no heroics. If the operation goes to plan and he turns up unaware of the reception committee, we take him by the quickest and least dangerous means at our disposal.

  'Make sure everyone is fully equipped for all eventualities, and all equipment is checked and up to operational standards. This could be it, gentlemen. We could finally be close to getting this man off the streets and behind bars
, where he belongs.'

  Ted relented and let Jezza stay in the main office while he briefed his team on the plan for the following day's operation. He suspected she would have gone head to head with him if he'd tried to order her out, so he opted for the line of least resistance. He squared it with himself by the thought that it wasn't to do with the enquiry itself, but its hopeful outcome. He also thought it would be good for her morale, as she couldn't be in at the end, to at least hear how it was planned to go.

  'Mike, you, Rob, Virgil and Sal are with me on this one. Stab vests on. Jezza, you're holding the fort and Steve, you're helping her.' He saw the young officer's disappointed expression and said, 'Don't worry, there'll be other opportunities, in the future. And you can guarantee there will be plenty of other crime going on at the same time which needs sorting. I'm counting on the two of you to be on top of anything that comes this way while we're out.'

  'We need to be on site and in position by eight o'clock, so I suggest we RV here at seven. There's not much room for vehicles so we all need to go in one. I'm picking up a new car this evening, but I've no idea what it is or how big it is until I see it, so it would be better if one of you four drives. Then whoever takes us in needs to park the car up somewhere well away and come back on foot, taking care not to be seen or to run into our suspect.

  'I'm hoping the operation won't take long. Theoretically, Danny will arrive at ten o'clock. Once his van is down the lane, an unmarked van, which will have brought in firearms and other officers, will be used to block his exit route if he does get wind of an ambush.

  'As soon as he gets out of his van, Mike, you and I, with a couple of Uniform officers, will approach him and attempt to arrest him. We will be covered at all times by firearms officers, but the hope is we'll be able to bring him in. We'll have Tasers ready if he produces the knife, and firearms are on stand-by just in case he has a gun on him.