by Ted Tayler
“Since your review at the weekend, guv,” said Luke, “it’s more likely Mark wanted to stop this puppy trade, and that’s what got him killed.”
“That’s my fault,” said Gus, “I got stuck in a loop around his blessed BMW. Now I can stand back and see the bigger picture we can get this wrapped up over the next few days.”
“If Neil and Lydia follow up on the suggestions you’ve just discussed, what shall I do, guv?” asked Luke.
“As soon as Drummond’s package of photographs arrives, collect everything we have on Polat and his gang ready to transfer to Trefor Davies in Marlborough. They carried out the original investigation; they should make the arrests. Our role is ending. We’ll trace the people Mark visited the night he died and take their statements; gather what we can from Mrs Corden and Portsmouth to add to our evidence, and Trefor Davies can make a case for the Crown Prosecution Service.”
Wednesday, 13th June 2018
“Are we ready to go, guv?” asked Neil
“Yes, Neil. Luke has called ahead to the two pet shop owners we need to interview. Our first stop is in Marlborough to speak with Tony Weston at Scruff’s.”
“Where do they get these names, guv?” asked Neil.
“Why might be a better question, Neil.”
Neil drove them to Marlborough, and Tony Weston was alone in the shop when they entered.
“I’m Gus Freeman, a consultant with Wiltshire Police. My colleague DS Davis has a few questions. Is there someone who can look after the shop while we talk?”
“I’ll give my daughter a shout,” said Tony Weston, “she’s supposed to be working this morning. I’m not sure if she’s out of bed yet. It can be quiet on a half-day.”
“We can wait, Sir,” said Neil looking around the store. “Do you handle dogs and cats?”
“We do,” said Tony, “I changed the name three years ago. Scruffs caters for any breed of dog or cat. We used to specialise in poodles, but that didn’t work out.”
“Kira! Can you come here, please?” he shouted.
Gus wondered whether Kira would get here before they’d finished the conversation. The pet owners of Marlborough seemed in no rush to gather on the pavement outside.
“Keep your hair on,”
Kira breezed into the shop from the upstairs accommodation.
“I need to talk to the police, Kira. Can you serve anyone if they come in?”
“I suppose so,” said Kira, giving Neil a close inspection.
“We’re interested in when you first met Emir Polat, Sir,” said Neil.
“That rogue,” said Tony. “He was the reason for the change of name. I met him at Crufts in 2014, and he persuaded me to take poodles from him. They were always late arriving. The documentation was dodgy, and we had complaints from the buyers.”
“You hoped it was a way to make your business more profitable, I guess?” asked Gus.
“It gets harder and harder each year,” said Tony.
“How well did you know Mark Malone?” asked Neil.
“We bumped into Mark at dog shows, and as a fellow pet shop owner, we had many of the same contacts. I would have classed him as an acquaintance, not a friend.”
“Mark came here in May 2015, didn’t he?” asked Gus. “On the night he died.”
“We live over the shop,” said Tony Weston. “Mark knocked on the door after seven o’clock. He wanted me to go to the police with him. One dog he’d received was ill, and the vet who examined it said she found traces of drugs. She saved the animal’s life, but it was touch and go.”
“Did you agree to join Mark in exposing the criminal operation?” asked Gus.
“No chance,” said Tony, “keep it down. I don’t want Kira to hear this. The one they called Mehmet fancied her. Kira was fourteen then. Polat made it clear that if I stepped out of line, he’d hand her to Mehmet. I was glad when the total nightmare ended. They scared me to death.”
“How long after Mark came here did the smuggling stop?” asked Neil.
“None of us received any more puppies after Mark Malone died.”
“How long did Mark stop here that night?” asked Gus.
“Thirty minutes, no more,” said Tony. “Mark drove away, and Polat arrived ten minutes later. That’s when they threatened me. I realised they were on Mark’s tail, but I couldn’t get involved. Kira’s our only child.”
“So, you never spoke to the police after Mark’s death?” asked Neil.
“I’m not proud of the way I handled it,” said Tony, “and none of the others would stand beside Mark and challenge the gang. The police said road rage was at the bottom of it. We wondered whether the other driver was Emir Polat. If Mark’s death was because of the dogs, then, as they’d killed once, my wife convinced me we shouldn’t risk getting involved.”
“That’s enough for now, Mr Weston,” said Gus, “DI Davis from your local nick will get in touch if he needs more. Thank you for your co-operation.”
“Can I go back upstairs now, Dad?” asked Kira.
Gus and Neil left Tony Weston and his Scruff’s and returned to the car.
“Where to now, guv?” asked Neil.
“We’re meeting a Caroline McCartney in Great Bedwyn. She thought ‘All For Dogs’ gave the right amount of clue to what she offered. Drive on, Neil.”
“Fifteen minutes, guv,” said Neil as he pulled up outside the pet shop.
“Keep those timings in mind, Neil,” said Gus. “They appear to stack up with Mark’s phone records. Remember that Drummond and Mark swapped calls at eight and five past.”
Caroline McCartney stood behind the counter of her shop. A timid woman, with no sign of a ring. Gus thought they attended school at the same time, separated by twenty-five miles of Salisbury Plain.
“You must be the police,” she said, “I expect you want to talk about Mark Malone.”
Neil Davis made the introductions and asked Miss McCartney what contact she had with Mark.
“Mark was a pleasant boy,” she replied, “very well-spoken and always polite. He was eighteen when I first met him at a show. We would chat over a cup of tea every show we attended after that. I used to teach at the local school. Since I retired, money’s been tight, you know. That was what made this proposition so interesting, at first.”
“When did they approach you?” asked Neil.
“At Paws In The Park in West Sussex,” she replied, “the man was smartly dressed and handsome. I’m afraid I enjoyed the attention he paid me. I asked Mark whether he thought it a good idea and Mark was keen, so I thought, why not?”
“Someone delivered a mobile phone, I assume?” asked Gus.
“Yes, within two weeks. That man was intimidating. I wasn’t so sure then I’d done the right thing. When I next got a phone call from Emir, he put my mind at rest and apologised for his colleague’s brusque behaviour.”
“We know the deliveries proved to be an issue,” said Gus, “what happened the night Mark came here? Was that the first occasion he’d visited you?”
“Oh yes, although we spoke at the dog shows, I wouldn’t invite gentlemen to my home. It’s next to the church. I carried on living there after Mother passed.”
“What time did Mark arrive?” asked Neil.
“Around eight o’clock. Mark sat in his car for a minute or two, making a phone call, then he walked up the garden path. I couldn’t imagine what he wanted.”
“He wanted you to help him,” said Gus.
“He begged me to help him,” said Caroline, “I couldn’t believe what he told me. Someone drugged one of his dogs. How terrible. Mark thought there was something sinister going on. I wanted to believe him, but who would treat dogs in that way? It was unbelievable. I didn’t have any trouble with the puppies I received. They looked older than the paperwork said, but who knows these days? Children grow up before you know it, don’t they?”
“Did Mark stay long?” asked Neil.
“He was such a kind boy,” said Caroline. “I could tel
l he wanted to leave, but he saw I was lonely and scared of Emir and the others. Mark stayed with me while we had a cup of tea and a slice of lemon drizzle cake. He left a few minutes before nine.”
“Did you hear from Emir Polat, or the others, after that?” asked Gus.
“No, thank goodness,” said Caroline McCartney. “I was well out of it.”
“What did you think when you heard Mark died later that night?” asked Gus.
“I was sad, of course, but it was the other driver, wasn’t it? He got angry at Mark over something. I don’t know what the world’s coming to.”
“Thank you for your time, Miss McCartney,” said Neil, “we’ll let you carry on with your day. You’ve been most helpful.”
Gus followed Neil from ‘All For Dogs’ and walked to the car.
“Are you in a rush?” he asked as Neil pulled away from the kerb.
“We got what we wanted, didn’t we, guv?”
“I was hoping she’d offer us a cuppa and a slice of cake before we left.”
“The timings match what we got from Mark’s phone,” said Neil. “We’ve got enough for DI Davies to arrest Polat, Demir and Turgut. I wonder where they are and what their next money-making wheeze was?”
“Let’s return to the office, Neil,” said Gus, “we can combine what we’ve gathered this morning with the work Lydia and Luke have done. I’d like Trefor Davies to have everything on his desk by ten o’clock in the morning.”
Friday, 15th June 2018
“Another day, another collar, guv,” said Neil when he arrived in the Old Police Station office.
“A satisfactory outcome to a messy business, Neil,” said Gus. “I’ll only work a half-day today. I want to spend time with Bert Penman this afternoon. His family’s funerals take place at eleven in the morning in Saskatchewan.”
“Seven hours ahead aren’t we, guv?”
“Yes, Clemency Bentham’s ready to do the early evening shift. She’ll do the prayers and the comforting. My role will be to give him something else to occupy his mind.”
“I could do with therapy after this week,” said Neil. “Why do you think the government thought it sensible to relax the strict pet travel laws six years ago?”
“It was to bring them in line with EU standards. They scrapped the six-month quarantine for any dog entering the UK. Animals could arrive twenty-one days after a rabies vaccination.”
“All designed to make free trade easier,” said Neil, “and the move led to a surge of dogs, both legal and illegal, coming into the country. Polat bought puppies in Eastern Europe, falsified their documents and sold them to buyers such as Gillian Corden, Tony Weston, and Caroline McCartney.”
“Polat and his friends were evil, Neil,” said Gus, “they cashed in on poor port security to smuggle in those puppies through Portsmouth. As for what happened next, well it beggar’s belief.”
“It didn’t take long for Trefor Davies to get cracking,” said Neil. “they located Demir and Turgut within hours. One was in Belmarsh, and the other was on remand. Turgut faced lesser charges, but he’d pushed his luck for too long. The three-strikes law would have seen him get a much longer sentence. So, he talked.”
“It was a nice touch of Trefor’s to let you go to Portsmouth, Neil,” said Gus, “when they arrested Eleni Macrides. I’m pleased we found her. She was instrumental in achieving the gang’s wishes.”
“You’ve got to hand it to those gangs, guv. They know how to organise schemes to maximise profit. Turgut told DI Davies that a Bulgarian outfit set up the Eastern European end of the puppy trafficking route. The drugs came into Belgium from Columbia via Italy, and Polat’s gang had the vet on the payroll. Macrides crossed the Channel every month to get the dogs ready to travel. She operated on them to get as large a quantity of drugs as possible around the dogs’ organs.”
“Macrides returned to Portsmouth and retrieved the drugs,” said Gus. “After Mark Malone’s death, the gang ceased the smuggling operation. The vet carried on working in Portsmouth, which pleased Trefor Davies because you could arrest her yesterday.”
“Mehmet Demir is serving time for armed robbery,” said Neil, “and he can kiss goodbye to walking out at the end of his sentence. Demir has two murder charges lined up to greet him.”
“Only one gang member left to find,” said Luke, “what have you heard since yesterday afternoon, guv?”
“DS Mercer called me at home this morning, Luke. The final piece of the jigsaw, Emir Polat,” said Gus. “He returned to Cyprus in 2016, and Turgut added his whereabouts into the mix in return for a lighter sentence. Trefor Davies had a European arrest warrant served on Polat yesterday evening by the local police in Paphos. The paperwork and mobile phones he had at his apartment could prove invaluable. Police on the continent are already chasing the trafficking gangs in several countries and are hopeful of making early arrests. It’s been a busy and successful week.”
“When is it not, guv?” said Lydia.
“Can we start wiping the whiteboards clean, guv,” asked Luke, “ready for our next cold case?”
“We can remove the images and the words, Luke, but this case leaves a nasty taste in the mouth, doesn’t it? At the outset, we thought Mark Malone died because he owed money to a crime gang or crossed them in some way. It turned out he was braver than any of the others contacted by Polat. He co-operated with them hoping to learn enough to smash the evil trade they operated. They killed Mark and closed the smuggling operation. It was a lucrative trade, even if it only lasted for a year.”
“I can’t believe they used dogs like that,” said Lydia.
“Even if you’re not a dog lover, it was abhorrent,” said Gus. “It’s odd though, isn’t it? The gangs got the different elements of the business set up and working like clockwork. They sourced the puppies and transported them across Europe to Antwerp, then stashed the drugs inside the animals and shipped them across the Channel to Portsmouth. All they needed to do was butcher the dogs and get the drugs out. Once they had the product, they didn’t need them.”
“That’s gross, guv,” said Lydia, “how could you even think of butchering the puppies?”
“Forgive me, but Emir Polat went to the trouble of finding gullible people who would take the puppies after they’d had a spell of recuperation. Hence the confusion in Gillian Corden’s mind over the age of the puppies when she received them. Ask yourself, why the discrepancy in the quantities? Sometimes packages split in transit. Human drug mules have suffered that fate. Maybe the dogs got traumatised by the long journey and the initial surgery to insert the packages. We’ll probably never know the scale of how many died en route.”
“When do you think Mark Malone rumbled them, guv?” asked Neil.
“Three months before the first JET garage incident,” said Gus.
“You’ve got me, guv, I don’t recall seeing another JET garage incident in the murder file.”
“It was never in the file, Neil. When Luke delivered the first batch of evidence we’d gathered on Tuesday morning, Trefor Davies told him he couldn’t believe the coincidence. One of his team was clearing out an old filing cabinet and found a loose folder that didn’t relate to items close by it. Turned out to be a statement from a lady at the garage on a Sunday morning. A BMW with tinted windows and a black SUV parked beside one another. The driver in the BMW shouted at the men in the SUV. She was sure he mentioned a sick dog he had taken in a few days earlier. He’d rushed it to the vets. They told him it had ingested drugs, and they operated on the dog and saved its life.”
“That was the night Mark went to the sex party the other side of Salisbury,” said Luke. “The black SUV stayed the night to follow Mark home.”
“The pressure was building, and Mark realised what was going on. Polat thought he could get away with threats and intimidation. Mark wouldn’t back off, so they silenced him. Trefor Davies has enough now to charge Mehmet Demir with Mark’s murder. We keep doing that guy favours. He’ll enjoy telling the Met he’s f
ound Mark Allison’s killer into the bargain. That’s another unsolved case filed away.”
“Teamwork pays off every time,” said Neil, “another case completed.
“Will there be a Crime Review Team party tonight?” asked Luke.
“Gus might be busy,” said Lydia.
“I’ll need a drink by nine o’clock,” sighed Gus, “Waggon & Horses again?”
“Sounds good,” said Lydia, “it will do Alex good to get out.”
“I might persuade Melody to join me, guv,” said Neil, “but no promises.”
“We understand, Neil,” said Luke.
“What did you mean about Polat gilding the lily by finding an outlet for his surviving puppies, guv?” asked Lydia.
“If Polat hadn’t gone to the trouble of contacting Mark and the others, then Mark would have been alive today. Who knows, the gang could still be at it smuggling drugs into the country inside puppies.”
“It just goes to show that we’re not the only nation of dog lovers, guv,” said Luke, “and criminals can be as soft over them as we are.”
“A schoolboy error,” said Neil, “they were mad to do that, weren’t they?”
“They were, Neil,” said Gus, “please don’t say what you were about to say..”
“Barking mad, guv?” said Neil.
“You couldn’t resist it, could you? It’s good to have you back, though.”
You have just finished reading ‘Barking Mad,’
The sixth book in the series featuring ‘The Freeman Files’
‘Creature Discomforts’ the seventh book in the series will follow.
There are unanswered questions in the pages you’ve read. One thing is sure; many more questions will need to be answered by Gus Freeman and his team before we reach the outcome of ‘Creature Discomforts.’
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