by Lee Weeks
‘Thanks for inviting us to come tomorrow,’ said Ross. ‘Willis and I will be fascinated to take a look at the big man himself. He can’t refuse to answer questions about the murder of his brother.’
They looked at one another and Ramirez shrugged.
‘Sometimes Tony Butcher is screaming at us like a toddler having a tantrum; sometimes he wants us to stay for dinner. We never know which Tony we will find.’
‘So, what do you hope to achieve in the raid tomorrow?’ asked Willis.
Ramirez answered, ‘Best scenario? We hope to find some evidence that Francisco is still alive.’
‘This is a respected local man, with a small daughter, who is also missing,’ said Garcia. ‘It will bring huge problems down on us if he has been murdered. Tony will not be safe, anywhere. The death squad will find him, and God knows how many others will die with him.’
‘You have the photos of him arriving and a double leaving with Marco Zapata?’ Ross said. ‘Chances are Francisco is dead.’
‘Yes, correct, but we don’t have a body.’
‘What reason do you think Tony would have for killing Francisco?’ asked Ross.
‘We both know why, otherwise a member of the Organised Crime Command wouldn’t be here, would he?’ Ramirez smiled at Ross. ‘Tony has cheated on his supplier, the Mendez cartel. We know it. You know it. He has kept the money he’s supposed to pay for the cocaine. Francisco is the man whose firm launders the money back to the cartel. There will be gangs fighting on the streets here to settle the score and, at the same time, to use this opportunity to force their way to the front.’
‘We will be looking for evidence of the murder tomorrow, but hoping to find none,’ said Ramirez.
‘Have you raided Tony Butcher’s place before?’ asked Willis.
‘Many times over the years.’
‘What about his brother Eddie?’ asked Ross. ‘Did you ever raid his premises?’
‘Eddie Butcher? No,’ answered Garcia, ‘we had no need to go in there. He was a respected man here in Marbella. He donated a lot of money to local charities. He was a man with a bad past but a good future.’
‘Who ended up tortured to death,’ added Willis.
‘The Mendez cartel did not want to kill Tony, not at this moment, so they kill his brother instead. They wanted to warn him,’ said Ramirez.
‘Someone kills someone from the family of a rival dealer, and then we have the start of a war that can end up being continued for years,’ answered Garcia. ‘We have had enough.’
Ramirez nodded his agreement. ‘Now that the violence is spilling onto the streets we have to be more active and stop it at the source.’
‘What’s Tony’s main way of getting the drugs to the UK?’ Willis asked. She knew that Ross had answered the question, but she also realised he was choosing to take a bit of a back seat.
‘Tony has many ways,’ answered Garcia. ‘The way of getting the biggest amount across is by getting it shipped straight across the Atlantic in container ships to the UK from South America, sometimes changing ship in Antwerp or Amsterdam. We see it smuggled inside bananas, yams, baskets, crockery, flowers, breast implants.’
‘Once,’ said Ramirez, ‘we had a shipment of bananas sent here to Valencia and the smuggler failed to collect his cocaine from the banana shipment at the dock, and the bananas ended up being delivered for sale in Lidl with kilos of cocaine in the boxes.’ He laughed.
‘We see it made to look like wooden pallets, bags of charcoal, woven into baskets; they even use carrier pigeons and jet skis,’ said Ramirez. ‘If only the cocaine cooks who come up with all these ideas would turn their hand to something legal! They are geniuses.’
‘So, it seems like they’re always coming up with new ways,’ said Willis.
‘That’s correct,’ answered Ramirez, who had begun to stare at Ross, a little uneasy with his silence. ‘It’s a case of getting it distributed in as many ways as possible. But you are very well aware of the problems, Detective Ross? I see by the information we received you have close links with us.’
Ross nodded. He smiled and shrugged. ‘I’ve been involved in a few arrests but Tony’s always been the one.’
‘We have had him under surveillance for the whole of my career in this town,’ answered Ramirez.
‘Is it right that Tony never leaves his villa?’ asked Willis. ‘He must be able to get out if he wanted.’
‘Tony could leave,’ said Garcia. ‘He could probably even get on a plane easily enough with a false passport. People find it easy to move around here, to hide in the mountains, and keep away from the police. Spain is a big country. They have a network of criminals who help one another here. They could not stay here otherwise. Many of them have contacts within the police force who tip them off when we are planning a raid.’
‘But Tony has become too scared to go far now,’ added Ramirez. ‘I think he is suffering from paranoia. All this time locked away has made him fear the outside too much and he knows his actions are causing wars outside his villa.’
‘How does he manage all the movement of tons of cocaine from his villa if he never leaves it?’ asked Willis.
‘He can carry on his empire from inside his walls,’ said Garcia. ‘He orders it and he leaves others around him to work out how something will be done. He just sits in his villa and demands it. He relies on his family and a few others here on the Costa del Sol. There are a few of his old buddies here and some new and very dangerous ones. Tony is not as good as others with modern technology. He pays others to have banks of computers and complicated passcodes, move money around the world, to make deals for him.’
‘What about the rest of the family? How much are they all involved?’ asked Willis. ‘We know Harold’s the Enforcer, he’s not a genius.’
Ramirez nodded. ‘Harold is getting too old for the job. Now he has Marco Zapata to help him. But Marco is away right now, which is helpful to us. We can deal with Tony more easily without him.’
‘What about the others?’ asked Willis. ‘What’s his wife like? She’s from the UK originally?’
‘They have been married for twenty years or more,’ answered Garcia. ‘We never see her in town any more. She used to come out with girlfriends and you would see her in the bars, but no more. She is a prisoner there now, we think. Della Butcher, Eddie’s wife, keeps very separate from the others. She and Eddie were usually seen together if they were in town. Eddie liked to show off on his yacht, in his cars.’
‘What level of surveillance do you carry out on a day-to-day level on Tony?’ asked Ross.
‘We have communications surveillance when he is in certain places in his house, anywhere on the verandas area. We track and follow any of the cars coming and going. We will try to plant surveillance devices now in this raid but Tony is clever at finding them. Tony has every latest gadget regarding surveillance.’
‘What about Sandra?’ Ross asked.
Ramirez laughed and shook his head. ‘Best not to make eye contact with her.’
Garcia grinned and nodded. ‘Yes, she bit me once. She is an old cougar.’
‘He had to get a shot in the arm,’ laughed Ramirez, ‘for rabies.’
‘Exactly, she is a rabid dog.’ Garcia rolled up his sleeve to show a small scar on his tanned arm. ‘If she is in a bad mood she is worse than an angry cat.’
‘Is she actively involved in Tony’s drug smuggling?’ asked Willis.
‘No, we don’t think so, but she is Tony’s support. She has a special bond with him. She has been accused of assault, even murder, in the last twenty years, but every time she gets off. She’s a lot like Tony.’
‘Be sure, if Sandra wanted you dead, she would do it herself,’ said Garcia. ‘She never minds getting her hands dirty.’
Chapter 36
Carter got Della a bottle of water as they waited in the pub for Bowie to join them. They had caught a taxi to Archway. The pub there was used to their holding impromptu meetings. It had plenty of priva
te booth areas for them to talk. It was two thirty in the afternoon and very quiet. Perfect for what they needed.
‘I can’t stay away much longer, Dan,’ said Della. ‘Marco will be back soon.’
‘Where did you say you were going?’ asked Carter.
‘I didn’t. He went to see Harold. I don’t know what for. He knows I have some things to do on my own but I don’t want to push my luck. I said I’d see him later.’
‘Has he called you?’ Carter asked.
‘No. We all have two phones. I’m happy for you to monitor mine but only if it can be done without the slightest chance of Marco realising.’
‘All these things will have to be set up for you,’ Carter said. The enormity of the task was weighing heavily on him.
Carter looked up as the door to the pub opened. Bowie headed towards them, ordering a coffee on the way.
Della stood as he got to the table and greeted him. ‘Hello, Simon. I’ll have to call you sir now. You’ve come a long way since we were cadets.’
‘Hello, Della. Yes, it’s been a long time. I’m sorry these aren’t better circumstances to meet under. You have my sympathies. We are doing all we can to find out who did this to Eddie.’ Bowie sat down. Carter could see how guarded he was. Bowie had been in Operation Argos. None of them had forgotten Della’s betrayal. But Carter knew he had to go straight to the top and get Bowie’s approval if Della’s plan was on the cards at all. There would be opposition down the ranks.
‘Carter briefly outlined your proposal on the phone to me.’
Carter was nodding quietly. The one thing he really knew was that Operation Argos was a personal failing for the whole team. Any chance of rewriting history and Carter knew Bowie would want to hear about it.
Della kept her voice low as the waitress came over with Bowie’s coffee.
‘I think we can help each other,’ she said.
‘If it goes wrong, Della, it could get you killed,’ Bowie said.
‘I know that, but I still prefer those odds to staying in my villa and waiting for either the death squad or Tony to kill me. I presume you also think that Eddie’s death had everything to do with Tony?’
Bowie was cautious. ‘We agree with you that Tony might have set Eddie up,’ said Bowie. ‘If he was killed by a death squad we will have a hard job nailing the person responsible.’
‘I know that. I understand. But I’d be happy with getting the man who ordered it. I hold him responsible for Eddie’s murder. Him and Marco Zapata did it between them.’
Bowie opened three packets of sugars and stirred them into his coffee.
‘Go ahead, Della, tell me what you have,’ said Bowie.
‘What I’m offering you is a chance to lure Tony out of the villa. He’s desperate to get his hands on a lot of money and I’ve told him I know where the missing haul from the Great Diamond Heist is.’
‘Did Eddie ever talk about the missing diamonds?’
‘Yes. He said it was a dead end. He said that the haul was long since split up and converted into cash. That’s what Eddie believed. Of course, he kept a few.’ She smiled.
‘And Tony?’ Bowie sipped his coffee.
‘He’s always thought Eddie was hiding something. The robberies took place in London, Antwerp and Dubai over a period of two days and then the diamonds were filtered into the system but it couldn’t be rushed. They had to have time to avoid suspicion. Both Tony and Eddie came out of prison to big cash payments, as I am sure you know, but the link to the main haul was lost when a few of the others involved in the London end of things were murdered. The chain to the stash was broken. Eddie came out of prison before Tony. Tony always thought Eddie shafted him.’
‘You say that Eddie kept a few?’
‘I need immunity on this if I’m going to help you. I only found out after Eddie was killed that I’m wearing a set made from the blue diamonds that were stolen. I will get hold of the few Eddie left in safety-deposit boxes and I’ll use them as bait to show the cartel. Marco is brokering the deal.’
‘He travelled over with you, didn’t he?’ said Bowie.
Carter watched Bowie. He wasn’t sure whether Bowie was buying into any of it.
‘Yes. I have sold Tony the idea that I need Marco to keep me alive and see me through to the diamonds. The truth is, I know he is the key to Tony now. Marco is ruthlessly ambitious and nothing matters to him but his own advancement. He’s got a big interest in helping me. He wants what Tony has, I know it. Marco would happily slit everyone’s throat to get to the top and he sees Tony as an easy route. He’s waiting for me to hand him the goods, then he’ll kill me, Tony and the rest of the family, no problem. It was his idea to switch over to his family’s cartel. He has so much to prove to them and he’s assured them he can deliver.
‘The diamonds would be a perfect currency for him. I could see, when I told him about it, that he thought all his Christmases had come at once.’
‘Exactly. He wouldn’t have to pretend to launder it,’ said Bowie. ‘But, now you’re over here, Tony’s going to make sure Harold and Marco keep tails on you. How are you going to manage?’
‘I’ve told them the deal is off if they tail me. I know they’ll try but I’m going to leave that to you, to a certain extent. I might need a double. I might just be able to give them the slip. After all, they don’t have the luxury of CCTV to monitor where I’m going. But there’ll be three of them to keep tabs on. I don’t trust Laurence, either. He’s happily stolen my husband’s business from me. I want that back. Eddie expected me to keep that under our roof. I’ve told Tony he has to give me back what’s mine by rights. He’s signed my house back to me, that’s a start.’
‘We can set you up in an apartment and have the whole place rigged,’ suggested Bowie.
‘We are in one of the family’s apartments at the moment. The one Eddie was staying in. I think it will be too tricky to move, but you can get one ready for me to run to. I can ask to move to other premises for practical reasons. The Butchers must know they are watched.’
‘Yes, that could work. We have several options around town. We’ll get one ready,’ said Carter. ‘We’ll have to swing into action fast if we want to find you a double.’
‘What’s your plan for all this, Della?’
‘Tony wants some proof from me that I can find the diamonds. I can come up with something to show Harold. Something genuine. I need the rest in place – uncut diamonds, a lot of them. They need to look convincing, maybe coated in diamond dust, I don’t know.’
‘We can look into, and arrange that,’ said Bowie. ‘So, you pretend to have found the stash of missing diamonds, and Harold sees the proof you have and gets back to Tony with a “Yes, this is genuine.” Then what?’
Della sighed. ‘Here’s what I’ve been thinking, what I have to work with: Eddie had several safety-deposit boxes that are still current. I will go inside and pretend to empty those, perhaps find something relevant I can show Marco and Harold. I have told Tony that I burned papers relating to codes for boxes, people’s names to contact, all clues that only I can follow. What do I mean by that? I don’t even know!’
Carter was nodding. Bowie was watching and waiting.
‘Two things we cannot control,’ said Carter, ‘the cartels, and the deal.’
‘Tony will have to do that. All we have to do is find him the diamonds and then he will have the funds to do the deal. I’m sure of this. I can work on Marco so that he keeps feeding Tony, fanning the flames. Then, just as it looks like it’s all going through, I can double-cross him. If we take Marco out of the equation as well, then Tony will have to come himself. Nothing would keep him away.’
Bowie glanced at Carter. The excitement of what could be was winning Bowie over.
‘It’s tricky, but it may be possible,’ said Bowie. ‘We’re going to have to rely heavily on undercover intelligence if we are to find out where and when the deal will happen. I’m worried that a lot will be on your shoulders, Della. The more
we talk it through, the more dangerous it becomes for you. We’re going to have to involve others.’
‘Maybe not till the end,’ said Carter. ‘We can start this off and see where it leads.’
‘The public can never know about you, Della. How is that going to suit you?’ asked Bowie.
She nodded. ‘I know I’ll be a snitch and a grass and I’ll be for ever hunted if the truth comes out, but you forget: I’ve always been that. I was an undercover cop. Only Eddie knew about that. I’ve lived with that secret, I can live with another.’ She looked at Carter, who was frowning. She smiled. ‘I really don’t have a choice with this, Dan. I come out fighting or I die.’
‘Not if you get witness protection. New identity.’
‘And give up my home, my lifestyle? Have to be anonymous for the rest of my life – live my life in fear, always looking over my shoulder? I can’t do it, Dan. I want what is mine. I want it returned to me. Eddie didn’t mean to leave me with this mess. He obviously underestimated his family, but I won’t. I know exactly what they are capable of now.’
‘The first step is to get some diamonds, a mix of uncut and cut, and fix up a couple of places for you to look for missing clues from Eddie,’ said Bowie. ‘They will follow you, so we better make sure you lead them a dance. It wouldn’t hurt to take Marco along on one of the parts of the trail. They have to be totally committed to it.’
‘Yes, I agree. Tomorrow I’m going to Hatton Garden. I can take him with me then.’
‘What’s in the safety-deposit box there?’ asked Carter.
Della smiled at him.
‘Shall we just leave it on a need-to-know basis? I’ve told you I can provide the high-quality diamonds to secure the deal. Let’s just pretend that I’m an ordinary person going into an ordinary safety-deposit box to find who knows what. What I come out with has nothing to do with the investigation.’