An African Adventure (Vince Hamilton Private Investigator Book 4)

by Patrick Slaney

  I also telephoned Inspector Baird to inform him that we had found the motorbike. I also told him that the van appeared to have returned to the UK.

  'A bit of news for you Vince relating to the stolen luxury cars, we have discovered where they are taking them. Believe it or not, they are loading them into twenty-foot containers and then shipping them out from London’s Tilbury Docks. We managed to place tracking devices on the containers so we can now find out exactly where they go.'

  'That's a big step forward Inspector. How do you know that they are being brought to the Tilbury docks?'

  'The first container that we tracked was taken there, and there appears to be another seven ready to be moved.'

  'So can you not confiscate them and recover the cars?'

  'Absolutely not; I want to see where the containers are going.' The Inspector was quite indignant.

  'Will you have your usual problem of not being able to get one of your men to follow it?'

  'You've hit the nail on the head, Vince. It is another case for Vince Hamilton, Private Investigator.'

  'If I go chasing around the world after a container for you Inspector I will be divorced. My wife is already upset about my trip to Bulgaria.'

  'I am sure that we can sort something out. I won't need you until the containers, plus the cars, are close to arriving at their destinations. That could be a few weeks away. You have plenty of time to get around your wife.' I could picture the Inspector smiling at his remark.

  'I am not promising anything at this stage, Inspector. We will have to see how it all pans out.' I was relieved that he didn't want an immediate decision from me. I could focus for the time being on the Harley Davison and travelling to Varna in Bulgaria.

  We managed to get three seats together on the plane. I placed Dragan in the middle so he wouldn't be left out of our conversation. Once we were off the ground and the engine noise was less on levelling out, I asked him to tell us about Varna.

  'Varna is a large holiday resort and is the biggest port on the Black Sea in Bulgaria. There are many beautiful beaches where we can go in the summer.'

  'Are there any ferries that go to other places around the Black Sea?' Reggie asked.

  'Yes there are a lot of ferries,' Dragan explained. 'One of the main destinations is Batumi in Georgia. My parents told me that many Georgian criminals relocated to Varna so as they could control what goes on the ferry. It's their lifeline to the west and to the supply of goods not available in Georgia. They smuggle all sorts of items that way.'

  'I am starting to wonder whether the people behind the stealing of the motorbikes might be part of one of these gangs,' I suggested.

  'What do you think Dragan?' Reggie asked.

  'I think that it is unlikely that the motorbikes would be coming to Varna to be sold to local people,' Dragan replied. It is more likely that they are being smuggled out of Bulgaria and are ending up in one of the ex-communist states.'

  'You say that there are a lot of Georgians driving the criminal activity in Varna. Are there also locals involved?' I felt that if Varna was the criminal capital of Bulgaria, there must be locals who were part of the gangs.

  'I don't know for certain, but I am told that former employees of the Communist Secret Service are heavily involved. They also have the reputation of being ruthless.'

  'So what I am picking up from you, Dragan, is that we will have to watch our step, or we will bump into some nasty ex-secret service guys.' I didn't like what I was hearing.

  'Is Varna a modern city?' Reggie inquired.

  'No, it is an old city with lots of museums and historic buildings. A side effect of all the tourists that visit it is that the place is well maintained and clean. My family and I love living in the city of Varna.'

  'Sounds good to me,' I said.

  'Do you mind if I go and stay at my home tonight and then meet you tomorrow morning?' Dragan asked.

  'If you can give me the name of a hotel where we can stay, you can come and meet us there in the morning,' I replied. ‘We won’t be going anywhere tonight.’

  'The one I know best, and which is very close to the centre of the town, is the Boutique Splendid Hotel. It is in Bratia Shkorpil Street.'

  'OK, we will ask the taxi to take us there, and you can meet us at that hotel at 10.00am tomorrow morning,' I suggested. ‘Write the details down for us as I will never remember the name you mentioned.’

  As we had discussed on the plane, Dragan contacted his parents on arrival, while we got another of the yellow taxis to the Boutique Splendid Hotel. Fortunately, to avoid having to change our plans, the hotel had two rooms available for us.

  We were too late to have a meal in the restaurant, so we ordered room service and ate this in my room. The food was very much international hotel flavour and not local, but it filled a gap.

  After our meal, I put a call through to the tracking centre in Hampstead.

  'I have some positive news for you, Major. The motorbike is on the move again. It is presently on the E772 with the next major town on its route Targovishte.'

  'Where does the E772 go after that town… whatever it is?'

  'Believe it or not, it looks as if it is Varna. So, fortunately, your hunch is correct.'

  'How long should it take to get from Sofia to Varna?'

  ‘The programme on my computer has calculated the journey time at about five and a half hours. It should arrive in another two hours.'

  'I'll give you the telephone number of the hotel, and you can ring me on that number as soon as it arrives.'

  'I'll do that,' the tracking operator confirmed.

  'Talk to you later.' I ended the call.

  'I gather that the motorbike is on the move again.' Reggie had apparently been listening to my conversation.

  'It is, and, thankfully, it looks as if is heading our way.'

  'What do we do when it arrives?' he asked.

  'Get the coordinates and try and find the location it has stopped at.'

  'Even if it is the early morning?'

  'Yes, Reg. we have come all this way to get the information for the Inspector, so we had better do our job.'

  'I had better go and get some shut-eye then. Call me on the house phone when you need me. My room number is 431.' Reggie went off to his room.

  'Sleep well.' He left me in peace.

  Ninety minutes later the phone beside my bed rang. I was still dressed but had nodded off.

  The operator in Hampstead told me that the bike had arrived in Varna and was at coordinates that he gave me.

  'From the information I have been able to collect that is an industrial area close to the docks,' he added.

  'I was going to go to the location tonight, but I am having second thoughts now,' I told him. After what I had been told about the criminal gangs in Varna, I reckoned that it would be more prudent to go there first thing in the morning in the daylight. Reggie would be able to get an uninterrupted night's sleep. I rang him to pass on the good news and told him to be ready to go at 7.00am the following morning.

  I phoned Dragan on his mobile and asked him to be at the hotel at 7.30am as we had changed our plan. I told him that the bike had arrived in the docks area of Varna. He was half asleep when I spoke to him, so I hoped he remembered my instructions. To be on the safe side, I would phone him at 6.30am in the morning just to check he was awake and on his way.

  I also put a call through to the Inspector just to bring him up to date on what we were planning. He was able to tell me that a number of containers, plus their cars, were about to be loaded on a ship that was going to Rotterdam. He confirmed that the signal was working well so they could track the containers wherever they went in the Northern Hemisphere.

  I knew that Rotterdam was one of the busiest container hubs in the world so there was a danger that we would lose track of them. I immediately thought that perhaps I would be able to get my old friend Willem van Grimbergen, who lived in Rotterdam, involved again. I was aware that he had some good contacts
who worked in the port. His enthusiasm for my investigative adventures had been somewhat dampened by his getting shot in La Rochelle when we were tracking down some diamond smugglers. After that event, his wife had put her foot down and forbade him from getting involved with me again. A bit like the approach that my wife was trying to take with me, I reflected.

  My small team met in the reception area of the hotel at 7.15am. I had managed to get some coffee organized; we wouldn’t have time for breakfast.

  I had managed to get a map of the city from the reception desk so as we could try and work out where we were going. I put the open map on a table, and we crowded around.

  'The encouraging news is that the motorbike has ended up in Varna, so we took the correct decision in Pernik to come here.' I started off the meeting.

  'Do you know exactly where it is?' Dragan asked.

  'According to the operator at the tracking station in London, it was taken to an area called Prishtanishten Komplex close to the main harbour where the ferries leave from. I have the co-ordinates' I searched on the map for the location.

  'Here it is Vince,' Dragan pointed to a spot on the map.

  'It looks to be quite a large area. We will never find the bike there as it is mainly warehouses,' Reggie commented.

  I continued with my briefing. 'It looks to be around two and a half kilometres from here which is not too bad a walk. Using the GPS device and the coordinates I was given last night, we will be able to find the exact spot.'

  Although I still had a problem walking due to my gammy leg, I reckoned that I could manage that distance and still keep up with the others.

  'We have to go around the main station to get over the railway tracks.’ Dragan showed us on the map. ‘If you like; we can take a tram as far as the station. After that, it is a short walk.’

  'That sounds like a better plan; let's go.' I said.

  There was a ticket issuing machine at the tram stop. I gave Dragan the money, and he got us the tickets. A few minutes later a tram arrived, and we squeezed our way on. Half of Varna seemed to be on the tram heading for the station.

  After a short journey, Dragan indicated that we should get off. In fact, it was the terminus, and everybody piled onto the pavement.

  'Where we want to go to is on the other side of the station, so we need to walk that way.' Dragan pointed to a road that went to the left of the station.

  I got out the GPS device and loaded in the coordinates I had been given last night. As soon as we were on the harbour side of the station, we had to turn right and head west along a road that ran between old warehouses. Surprisingly, for a harbour area, there were a large number of trees. It seemed to be an old part of the city as the buildings looked to have been built a considerable time ago.

  This is the old port area and the warehouses here are no longer used,’ Dragan explained.

  We passed close to one of the large basins of the harbour where some quite large sea-going vessels were moored. The road then wound its way around some other built-up areas of the port where there were more large warehouses. Finally, the GPS device showed us that we had arrived. There was a dry dock to our left containing some ships that were being worked on. To our right was a large warehouse that looked as if it hadn't been used for years.

  'Is this it?' Reggie asked.

  'Yes, if the coordinates I have been given are correct.'

  'How do we get inside to find the motorbike?' Dragan inquired, looking at the high walls of the warehouse and appreciating that there were no windows that we could look in through.

  'We could come back later when it gets dark and try and break in through the main door?' Reggie suggested.

  'To try and gain entry would be far too dangerous,' I added. 'We know the motorbike is still in there because the transponder is still working and it is showing up on the screen back in the tracking centre. When it moves, London will let us know.'

  'If we stay close by we can be here in twenty minutes at the most,' Reggie interrupted. 'All we have to do is set up an active link with the operator in the tracking centre.'

  'Our mobiles won't work here but there is a Wi-Fi connection at the hotel so we can set up an internet link,' I replied.

  We made our way back to the hotel again using the tram to shorten our walk. Having Dragan with us made everything so much easier. He knew the way and which stop we had to get off at for our hotel.

  I obtained the password for the hotel's internet connection from reception or rather Dragan did the talking. He also ordered food for us which would be sent up to my room.

  While we had our breakfast, I called the tracking centre. I emphasised to him that we were totally reliant on him, and he should contact us on my email immediately our target moved. I had hooked my laptop into the hotel's Wi-Fi, so we were ready for whatever happened.

  'Do you still need me here?' Dragan inquired.

  'I would like to have you around when the motorbike is moved, but if you don't want to stay that is also fine,' I replied.

  'When does the ferry for Georgia depart from Varna,' Reggie inquired. 'Surely they will take the motorbike on that ferry if we are correct in our assumption that it will be travelling to Georgia.'

  'That is only an assumption we made Reg, but we don't really know where its final destination is.' Our guess that it would end up in Varna had proved correct but beyond that, it was a much less certain guess.

  'Should we not find out when the ferry leaves as that will give us an idea of when the bike might be moved,' Dragan suggested.

  'That's a superb idea,' I said. 'You are obviously a brilliant student. Why don't you phone the ferry company and find out for us.'

  He got the ferry company's telephone number from reception and after a few minutes told us that the next ferry would be leaving at 2.00pm that afternoon. If we had come to the correct conclusion, then we wouldn't have long to wait, and the motorbike would be leaving in a few hours' time.

  'Let us assume that the Harley will be leaving on the ferry today,' I suggested. 'That means that they must move the bike from the warehouse to the port between 11.30am and 1.00pm.'

  'What are you suggesting Vince?' Reggie asked.

  'I will stay here monitoring my laptop while you and Dragan go back to where we were this morning and keep an eye on the warehouse. I suggest that you stay where the road runs beside the harbour as you will be safer there and you can stay hidden amongst the trees.’ I further explained, ‘there is only one exit from the warehouse, so if they move the bike, it must pass you there.'

  'I am sorry to correct you, but there is another exit onto the road that crosses one of the bridges over the harbour, and that is the way to the ferry,' Dragan said apologetically.

  We had another look at the map just to check the possible exits and found our student friend was correct.

  'Perhaps you should split your resources so you can cover both exits,’ I suggested. ‘It's up to you how you organise yourselves. Just be very careful; we don't want anybody getting shot at or abducted.'

  'What do we do if we spot any activity?' Reggie inquired.

  'Use Dragan’s mobile to ‘phone me on the hotel's telephone number and if I get any information, I will phone you.'

  'That should work. Let's get going now, Dragan.' Reg sounded very enthusiastic.

  They both left to return to the warehouse in the Prishtanishten Komplex. I looked at my watch; it was 11.00am. If our assumptions were correct, the action would start soon.

  At five to twelve my laptop blipped, indicating that a message had arrived in my inbox on my email. When I opened up Hotmail, I saw that it was from the police in London. There was a very simple message - 'It is moving again and is heading for the ferry port.'

  I telephoned Dragon's mobile.

  'Hi, Vince; what's up?'

  'Have you seen anything yet?'

  'Hold on …….' He paused.

  'There is a large delivery truck passing me now, and there are pictures of bicycles on the side of i
t.'

  'Can you see inside it?'

  'No, the rear door is closed.'

  'Get hold of Reg and head over to the ferry terminal immediately and stay out of sight. I will meet you there.'

  'OK see you soon.'

  I closed my laptop and headed downstairs to the reception area. There was a taxi rank just down the street from the hotel, and I got one of them to take me to the Batumi ferry terminal.

  I paid the taxi driver and looked around the ferry port. I had no problem spotting the large van. The pictures of bicycles on both sides made it stand out in the car park.

  Quite a few lorries were lining up, getting ready to board the ferry. There was also a line of cars. A large number of delivery vans of all sorts and sizes were also waiting to board.

  About twenty minutes later I saw Reggie and Dragan arrive. I waved to them to attract their attention.

  'Is that the van that you think the motorbike is in.' I pointed to the van with the pictures of bicycles on the sides.

  'Yes, that is the one I saw.' Dragan confirmed.

  'Why is it parked at the side and not queuing up in the line for loading?' Reggie asked.

  'Perhaps the van isn't travelling,' Dragan suggested.

  'Let's wait and see what happens,' I proposed.

  At around one o'clock, four track-suited men appeared.at the back of the van. The shutter acting as the rear door was opened and the tailgate platform raised so as it was level with the floor of the lorry. Two motorbikes were wheeled out and transferred to the tarmac. The process was repeated until there were eight expensive looking motorbikes standing together on the tarmac. The Harley was the last bike to be offloaded.

  'Crikey, look at that,' Reggie said. 'There must be nearly a million dollars' worth of bikes sitting there.'

  'They clearly had another seven motorbikes stored in that warehouse,' Dragan added.

  We watched as they loaded all the motorbikes onto the ferry.

  'Do we go and buy tickets and travel on the ferry to see where they are going?' Reggie asked.

  'No, it is far too dangerous. The ferry trip is around sixty hours, and we already know where it is going. I will report back to Chief Inspector Baird, and it is up to him what he does. We have already heard how ruthless the Georgia Mafia can be, and I don't want to lose any of you.'