“Catching them would be a good start, detective sergeant. I think we are miles behind. Somehow, we have to try to out-think them, and these people are cunning, very clever, and I suspect already moving into the next phase.”
He clicked his fingers again, causing both O’Shea and Roberts to snap out of their thoughts.
“Got it! The adhesive is a remnant of a device that they have used. Secure the branch CCTV and let’s get someone…Carrie, you…get in there and start reviewing the footage between…” He stopped and calculated a period when he would commit the same crime.
“Between?” said O’Shea eager but slightly impatient.
“Sorry, between 21:00 and 04:00 – I know it’s a long time period but I doubt many genuine customers would have used the machine – in fact go one step further, see if the bank can confirm how many transactions there were and focus on those. The offenders may have used the machine conventionally first, then added the device.”
Roberts was rubbing his chin vigorously and stroking the label on his tie with the other hand. He had the mannerisms of an ex-smoker, almost desperate for something to occupy his restless hands.
“Jack, for Christ’s sake, talk to me about the device. What are we talking about here, something that traps notes, an advanced version of the grabber…the Lesbian Loop thing?”
“Lebanese? No, I suspect not. I’ll lay what’s left of my tattered reputation on this being an electronic device. It needs to be a three-stage process. I lay awake for hours last night…”
“Thinking about hot steamy water trickling down Petrov’s pert breasts?”
This earned him a powerful slap from O’Shea who drove the back of her hand across Roberts’ triceps, causing him to yelp. Cade would later describe the sound as being exactly like that of a chastised infant canine.
“No, Jason. No, I did not, romantic though you make it sound. No, I found myself thinking about how I would rip off the general public on one hand and government departments on the other. If one system worked, I’d be well off. If both were successful, I’d be very wealthy indeed, and as we keep saying these are clever people. On this hand I’ve got bank machine fraud and on this passport fraud.”
“So?”
“So, what I came up with was a package that you attach to the existing bank machine. The customer places their card into the housing and the magnetic data is copied onto a small hard drive.”
Cade had hardly finished when a disbelieving Roberts countered his idea.
“It’s the work of Professor Hawking himself, mate – can’t be done.”
“A tenner says it can,” replied a confident Cade, his fist planted on his throat as if using an electronic voice box. “All we need is a few bits of readily available equipment and a willing partner in a plastics factory.”
Cade, O’Shea and Roberts returned to the Yard; en route Cade outlined what was needed and how relatively simple, yet exquisitely brilliant the system was. As with all of his brightest ideas, he hadn’t got a clue where to start when it came to building it. He’d need an expert for that. And he knew where to find one.
Chapter 27
Roberts was devouring a pie that he had located somewhere between the car park and the office. He turned the last part around, examined it slowly, then spat the remnants into a nearby bin.
“Do you know what boys and girls? I’m vegetarian from this day onwards. I swear I’ve just eaten an ear. It’s not happening. Carrot and parsley pie it is for me from now on.”
He walked, feeling nauseous, towards the bathroom.
Cade and O’Shea sat at her desk and were quickly joined by Petrov. She was remarkably upbeat and appeared to have completely lost her sense of fear; a fear that had previously consumed her, and that had risen up during the preceding days. Cade looked at her and wondered where she gathered her physical and mental strength from.
“So, how are Batman and Robin?” asked Petrov, causing O’Shea’s feathers to ruffle slightly but enough to make her respond in a semi-caustic tone.
“I’m neither The Caped Crusader nor his slightly less impressive sidekick Nikolina, in fact, I’m nobody’s sidekick. Jack and I have been busy sweeping up the remnants of your group’s offending.”
It was the first time he’d observed it, but there in front of him was a combination of professional and personal jealousy. He wasn’t quite sure how the situation had arisen but he knew that it needed attending to: in one corner he had the girl every man in the office couldn’t avoid taking sideways glances at and in the other a woman he found profoundly and almost strangely attractive. Somehow, he had to keep them separate – and yet his priority had to be Petrov; his force and the Home Office had decreed it.
“Nikolina, let’s go for coffee, we need to talk.”
They walked across the road from the bland yet famous landmark that had become the flagship of the Metropolitan Police. As they crossed the road Cade scanned the street and the skyline as if Petrov were his Principle. She was. Something caused him a deep-seated sense of concern. The activities with the van and car earlier in the week had almost been forgotten, but they had planted a seed that was germinating deep inside Cade’s subconscious.
Whilst the ‘Wave’ were industrious in their preparations to bleed London banks of every penny they were also likely to have long memories when it came to betrayal – and Petrov had not only betrayed the group and its figurehead, worse still she had betrayed her lover. He doubted they had finished with her yet and here he was having coffee with her in an insecure location; unarmed, unsupported and unaware.
“Now, my wonderful Bulgarian friend, I need your help.” He blew across the top of his coffee, cooling it slightly.
“Fire away, Jack. I am all yours,” she replied, her tongue darting around the rim of the latte glass.
“Thank you. Can you remember Alex ever talking about a device that would take money from a bank machine?”
“You mean like PE-4?”
He laughed and continued, “No, not quite, I don’t anticipate his team blowing bank machines up just yet. It was reported once in Italy last year. The bank experts believe that someone tried to detonate a device inside an ATM, but I don’t think even Alex’s web spreads that far. I don’t know whether he has the skill?”
“Money talks, Jack. He can hire anyone and there are a lot of ex-military people in Eastern Europe needing work.”
“Agreed, but it’s too risky. Why detonate a bomb and risk taking out the branch and everyone near it when you can use more subtle systems?”
“You mean like oxyacetylene?”
Cade’s face morphed from blank, non-descript to pure curiosity and he found himself thinking that this girl was a modern-day miracle: attractive, educated, trained and knowledgeable. Her instinct and operational skills belied her age.
“Oxy? Why? You are way ahead of me, please explain?”
“I am always ahead of you Jack that is why you always chase me, no?”
There he was again, caught in the headlights.
“Look, Alex once talked; he always talked after we made love – that was when I got the best information from him. I would go to the bathroom once he was asleep and send my text messages. One time he talked about using oxyacetylene to blow up a bank machine. I think he meant what you call an ATM. I didn’t know why he told me these things, but he did. So, I listened.”
Cade nodded vigorously, Roberts would kill for this type of information. He considered ringing him and asking him to join them, but he didn’t want to risk a change in dynamics. Roberts would question her on crime for ten minutes, then spend the next hour trying to get into her knickers. Cade would flirt with her if he had to; tough job, but someone had to do it.
“He said that his team hadn’t worked out how to do it but they knew it could be done. He said that he wanted Primul Val to be the first. He always wanted them to be the first. He was always planning to be Europe’s most wanted man.”
Cade tried to ignore the last part of the se
ntence, but hindsight would teach him that to do so was a mistake.
“OK, so it didn’t work, how do you know?”
“Because he took me to a place once, somewhere out in the Spanish countryside, we were high up in the hills on a rough track overlooking a place called Camino. They tried to make it work on an old safe. There was an explosion. One of his men was very badly hurt. He was burning Jack, like meat on a barbeque, they just left him there. I can still smell him…”
She stared through Cade, clearly reminiscing about the incident.
“We were about to drive away when he made one of his junior men go back and finish him off. He hit him with the cylinder until he didn’t get up. They pushed the safe and the man down a ravine into some undergrowth. He is probably still there. Then, we just drove off and went for dinner Jack. He even gloated that he liked his steak medium rare. The waitress didn’t know what he meant, but everyone else that sat with him, pampered to his ego, they knew. How could he be so cruel?”
Cade questioned how such a beautiful woman could have remained with such a heartless creature. Despite his hesitation, he knew all too well that women were strangely attracted to powerful, aggressive and dominant men. His ex-wife was. But Petrov had an agenda. She was collecting for her government, and she was a woman scorned.
“Thank you, Nikolina. Please, if you can, tell me about the bank machines. I think Alex has worked out a way to steal money from them. I think he might use a device that he puts onto the existing machine. Am I right?”
She paused, sipped some more of her coffee, then responded in a cooler tone.
“Jack, if I help you, you will make sure I am safe here in England? I need to know, please. I pretend that I am not scared, but I am. I have the scars; I have the dreams. I have my daughter, I…”
He held out his hand and took hers. It was most likely a breach of something, somewhere, some local bloody Standing Order about a ‘distance policy’. Christ, it hadn’t stopped that bastard Cooke so why should it stop him? He held her firmer and looked at her, willing her to look up.
“Nikolina, you have my word. Tomorrow we will start work with the Home Office – they are the people who have made sure that I work with you and they are also the people who can provide you with asylum from…from wherever it is you think you cannot go back to.”
She smiled a weary smile.
“Jack, I can’t go back to Spain, Romania or Bulgaria. There are people in all of those places that either want to abuse me, kill me, or imprison me. If you cannot help me, you must help my daughter. Me? I am better off dead.”
“I promise to help.”
“You promise, Jack?”
“I do Niko, I do.” He had shortened her name; it was a mistake, as much as the empty promise was. He knew there was no way he could protect them both.
“Right, tonight I have to go to a meeting with Carrie. Jason has told me that you will be guarded by Detective Wood. He is a good man, ex-army, and he knows London better than almost anyone on the team. You will go to the safe house and he will remain with you until I return. OK?”
“OK. You have a good meeting with Miss O’Shea but watch out for her Jack, she looks at you in a special way.”
He laughed it off, somewhat uncomfortably then announced that they needed to get back to the office.
As they exited the café, a dispatch rider hissed by on a mountain bike causing Cade to tense up and grab Petrov, pulling her close to him. She seemed oblivious to the risk, or he was becoming paranoid.
He looked at her. Those incredible eyes looked back.
“You can let go now, sergeant. I will be fine.”
He let her go, happy that the rider was just that. They walked across the road and back into the police headquarters. Each time he closed the door behind him, he released a quiet sigh. He’d only been in the city for such a short time but already mistrusted almost everyone, hardly a healthy start to the relationship.
They got back into the unit, and as they walked past a whiteboard Petrov stopped.
“Jack, I never showed you how.”
He turned, a little unsure about what she was talking about but as always gave her his undivided attention.
“The bank machines, silly!”
He playfully slapped his own forehead.
“Of course, the bank machine…go on, draw it.”
Seeing them stood at the whiteboard, Roberts bounded out of his office and joined in the conversation. Standing alongside Cade, he commented in a stage whisper.
“Alright my son, thanks for the invite for coffee, you old dog. Now what’s all this malarkey?”
“Can you remember when you, Carrie, and I were talking about the potential device earlier? Well, Nikolina is going to show us what Alexandru created. I think this might be the break you crave Jason.”
As they spoke the Bulgarian had already started her diagram. She briefed the growing team expertly, talking them through each stage and pausing for questions which never arose.
“OK, this is the plastic housing. Alex had a man in Malaga who worked for a company called SuperNova – they made plastic injection mouldings, he paid him twice his monthly wage to make a…a…house for the machine…”
“A housing?” offered Roberts attentively.
“Yes, a housing Jason. He paid him well and also reminded him that if he betrayed him, he would take his children and harm them in the most creative way possible. The housing looked just like the one on the bank machine.” She pointed to it with the blue marker pen.
“Just here is where it fitted to the existing machine; just here the bank card goes into the slot and behind here…”
Cade spoke up, “Goes a card reader?”
“Bingo Jack, you win the prize!”
She seemed fired up with the enthusiasm in the room until the ever-conceited Wood chipped in, his accent thicker than ever.
“OK, I gets all that little lady but how do they know what the PIN number is eh? It strikes me that they ain’t so clever after all.” He looked around haughtily, hoping to gain some points among his junior colleagues.
One theatrically coughed the word ‘wanker’ earning himself a rebuke from Roberts, who in truth was frustrated that as the boss he could no longer join in with the banter. He agreed with the heckler. The sooner he could get rid of Wood the better. Such a pity he was a good investigator.
She continued, expertly brushing his cynicism to one side like an unwanted and annoying Horse Fly.
“Should you pay attention, Detective, you will note that there is a card reader behind the housing. It gathers data from the magnetic strip on the bank card; the card is also read by the bank computer. The bank provides the amount of money selected by the customer and the machine returns the card…”
It was Wood who interrupted once more.
“See, like I say, absolutely bloody useless. I could knock up a better machine in my shed.”
Roberts ventured forward and offered his support.
“Clive, I’m sure there’s a lot you could knock up in that shed of yours but let’s concentrate on listening to Miss Petrov, shall we? We my fine friends are on the verge of becoming the first force in Britain to get one step ahead of a team that is taking the piss out of us and the bank industry. Someone put the kettle on and get me a custard cream, McVitie’s, none of that cheap crap.”
Cade smiled, he liked the way Roberts worked. He was young in service but old-fashioned in values. He aspired to greater things, and it was clear that at the heart of his enthusiasm was the desire to slip some inspector’s pips onto his shoulder.
Cade knew that the Latin motto almost hidden within the shining silver insignia meant ‘three joined in one’ – he thought it fitting as he was now working with Roberts and O’Shea.
Petrov finished her briefing, “Thank you, sergeant. The card is returned, the customer is unaware that their data has been captured by the reader and most important of all, before you say anything else Mr Wood is this.”
&nb
sp; She drew a red circle on the diagram.
“This is the other part of the machine, situated higher, above the number pad. It is a cell phone with a small camera. When the card is inserted it films the PIN number being entered by the customer. Later on, when the streets are quieter one of the team returns and removes the device. The team has the bank data and PIN number and now, well now, they have fun. They go onto the internet and buy things. Watches, electronics, currency, hotels, flights and of course they withdraw cash. Alex told me that they could even think about selling the bank data to other thieves.”
The room was quiet.
It was Cade that broke the silence.
“OK folks, there you have it. All we need to do now is work out an offending pattern. We know they have most likely hit this area, where are they liable to go next? Where would you offend and why? It’s obvious we need to role this out to the frontline Jason; we need the boys and girls to be our eyes and ears. Thank you Miss Petrov, most helpful.”
She smiled; he returned the smile and left her to mop up the meeting, fending off a few late questions from the younger suited and booted detectives who in truth were struggling to make them up, but the longer they kept her there the greater the chance of a flash of cleavage or an opening for a date: Moths to her flame.
The day was ending, a couple of CID staff were staying in the office to clear up some paperwork whilst two others were out and about, hoping to be the first to catch an offender ‘bang at it’.
Roberts had gone home early. For him early was five o’clock, regardless of what time he started. Outside, the Great Commute had begun as people from all walks of life jostled like ants to get from A to B.
O’Shea was working later than most, her desk lamp blazing, her mind racing. She looked down the office. Had he remembered?
Cade was briefing Wood about his role. On no terms was he to allow her out of the apartment. If they needed to leave – if her safety was compromised – then he was to call it in first, then move.
Seventh (The Seventh Wave Trilogy Book 1) Page 39