Cold Killers

by Lee Weeks

  Bowie looked at Carter, who nodded.

  ‘You’re right: need-to-know basis,’ said Bowie.

  ‘Tomorrow you need to hire a car and make sure you lose the boys while we meet up and we exchange a phone, a wire, we go through the finer points,’ said Carter. ‘We should have a fair bit of it worked out by that time.’

  Della got ready to leave. Carter stood.

  ‘You okay, Della?’

  She smiled at him reassuringly. ‘Don’t worry, Dan. I’ll see you tomorrow.’

  ‘Here.’ Bowie passed her over a phone. ‘It’s traceable. We’ve made it look like you’ve been using it for ages. It’s got false contacts, messages, et cetera. Carter here is under a contact called Danielle Sprint. I’m under Mum Sprint. If you can’t get hold of either there’s the crime analyst Robbo.’

  ‘Robbo? I remember him.’

  ‘Robbo is under a pizza company called Roberto’s.’

  ‘Okay, got it, thanks.’

  ‘Text me when you’re ready to meet tomorrow,’ said Carter. He watched Della leave and sat back down.

  ‘Drink?’ asked Bowie. He shook his head.

  ‘She has no idea what she’s letting herself in for.’

  ‘Best that way, I think, don’t you?’ said Bowie.

  Carter nodded. He was distracted, worried. He looked up at Bowie. ‘We better make this work, then. Can we access enough good-quality raw diamonds?’

  ‘It’s possible. They need to come from a believable source: the right mines from the time. We better get hold of a jeweller to help with this. What about Maxi Seymour? He’s an ex-copper.’

  ‘Good idea. We can remind him of the fact he owes us for getting his stolen diamonds back to him last time he was robbed.’

  Carter nodded. ‘I’ll get on it today. I better get Maxi to help us get hold of enough of the good stuff mixed with glass, to make it believable. We need to be ready for the deal. Obviously, we’re still talking about a large risk if the diamonds disappear.’ Carter waited for Bowie as he took a few seconds to stare into his coffee cup.

  ‘There’s no doubt this is a hell of a gamble, Dan. Having to explain that we trusted an ex-policewoman turned excon’s wife with several hundred thousand quid’s worth of diamonds that she could just fuck off with?’

  ‘The what-ifs are massive,’ said Carter. ‘Losing a few hundred thousands’ worth of diamonds would definitely be a big one but allowing a few hundred millions’ worth of cocaine into the UK is worse. Della wouldn’t be so stupid as to run off with the diamonds. We might not catch her but the Butchers as sure as hell would.’

  Bowie nodded. ‘At some point we will have to involve the NCA,’ he said. ‘Ross needs to know that we have a plan; we’re going to need the NCA’s help in tracking the shipment of cocaine into the UK. If he’s going to be working closely with us, he probably should know the whole truth.’

  ‘This will mean putting Della at even more risk,’ said Carter. ‘What if it goes wrong?’

  ‘Then we give Della her witness protection and that’s it. She disappears and we carry on as normal. She knows the risks.’

  ‘But what if she gets killed? Are you saying she’s disposable?’

  ‘I’m saying, things happen when criminals shaft one another. No one will think that it’s an unlikely scenario. The news will be Della was after the diamonds, of course. Why wouldn’t she be? Her husband died the same way, once a criminal always a criminal, all that shit,’ Bowie said, exasperated.

  ‘Christ, that’s harsh. That doesn’t sit right with me.’

  ‘Then, you think about it good and hard, Dan, and you let me know what does sit right with you. This could be the chance to right some wrongs for 2003. A lot of what was wrong was Della. How do we know we can trust her any more now than we could then? I’m willing to let her take the risks. She owes us.’ Carter was about object but Bowie put up his hand by way of an apology. ‘Look . . . look, I’m sorry, Dan. I understand your concerns. But I think Della can look after herself. I think she’s a lot more capable than you give her credit for.’

  ‘This better not be about revenge for the failure of that mission,’ Carter said, ‘because I seriously don’t believe that had anything to do with Della. It could have been anyone.’

  ‘I know. I’m sorry. I’m feeling the pressure too. I am prepared to back this plan, I assure you. I have every faith in your judgement. How do you see it working?’

  ‘Okay, well we start by making absolutely sure that Della has everything she needs to do what she says she will,’ said Carter. ‘We are going to have to take most of the direction from her. She is also going to be our main source of information about the shipment and its arrival.’

  ‘The man Marco will be a major problem. He’s like her shadow.’

  ‘Then she’ll have to find a way of using him,’ said Carter. ‘We said it can’t be a set-up, but we’re going to have to know every move Tony makes with the new deal. It has to be all manoeuvred by us. Place, time.’

  ‘What if they demand the transaction happens in Spain?’ asked Bowie.

  ‘No, that can’t be,’ Carter answered. ‘Then all this will have been for nothing. We need this arrest to be on UK soil. So long as Tony remains wanted for crimes in Spain we will never get him in court here. It has to be here. We have to make it impossible for it to take place anywhere else. The diamonds must remain elusive till the last moment. Della will have a big task on her hands. She’s going to need all the help we can give her. She’s going to need our support.’ Carter looked at Bowie for his assurance.

  ‘I understand,’ Bowie said, ‘but what about the rest of the team? How much are they going to know about Della? There’ll be a lot of hostility and I doubt if you’ll find one officer who would trust her.’

  ‘Only those closest will know her identity. Everyone else will know her as Contact X in all meetings. All most of the team need to know is that she is an insider who knows when and where the deal will take place.’

  ‘Robbo?’

  ‘Yes. He is going to have to help us coordinate.’

  ‘We’ve already agreed Ross will have to find out sooner or later. Ross and Willis will both be right in the middle of this.’

  ‘That’s it, then. That’s enough. Contact X must be protected by the five of us.’

  Chapter 37

  Willis and Ross left the meeting and checked into their hotel. They went to their serviced apartment within the holiday hotel complex.

  ‘I thought we’d be better off in an apartment so that we can discuss things with more privacy,’ said Ross as he pushed the door open and held his foot against it for Willis.

  The balcony window was open in the lounge area. The breeze smelled of the sea. It was dusk.

  ‘It’s great.’ Willis walked through and put her bag down in the middle of the tiled floor and stepped out onto the balcony. The lights of Marbella stretched brightly beneath them.

  Ross was looking over the apartment.

  ‘You can take the room with the double bed. That’s fine by me,’ he called out.

  ‘What’s the alternative?’ answered Willis.

  ‘Another room, with twin beds.’

  ‘Either’s good for me.’

  ‘Okay, then, thanks. I’ll take the big bed. I tend to fall out of single ones.’

  Willis experienced a wave of excitement as, standing in the evening air, she felt the warmth on her skin and breathed in the smell of tropical vegetation.

  ‘Fancy a dip?’ asked Ross.

  ‘I need to buy a costume.’

  ‘Okay, well I’m afraid I’m not waiting.’ He appeared behind her changed into his long swimming shorts. ‘I suppose you could just wear your bra and pants and wrap a towel round you. Does it look busy down there?’ Ross came to look down from the balcony. The pool was empty.

  ‘I suppose this is the off-season. But they said it was heated.’

  ‘Do you think that will be okay?’

  ‘What, the bra-and-pants
thing?’ She nodded.

  ‘Fine. They expect it of us Brits, anyway. No, I’m only joking. Put a robe on – there’s one in the bathroom – and we’ll go for a dip. We deserve it after the day we’ve had. Then we can have dinner, beer on the terrace here and an early night.’

  Willis went into the bathroom to get changed and put on the robe. She followed Ross out and down the stairs and left her robe on a sunlounger and dived into the water. She swam beneath the surface. It was wonderful to feel her hot skin soothed by the cold waters. She swam length after length of crawl before she came up for air at the end of the pool.

  ‘You’re a fantastic swimmer.’

  ‘Thanks.’ She propped herself up by her elbows and looked at the lights around the pool.

  ‘Feels great, doesn’t it?’ Ross rested his head on the side of the pool and stared up at the dark sky. ‘We used to come to Spain most years. Even before we had kids. Then we’d live for one holiday to the next. We saw a lot of the world, Belinda and me. We had a lot of fun.’

  Willis wiped the water as it dripped into her eyes.

  ‘Did you ever go to Jamaica?’ she asked.

  ‘We went to Antigua,’ answered Ross. ‘And Barbados. We loved it. The Caribbean has the most perfect temperature – it’s thirty degrees all year round and the breeze never stops. I think it’s heaven. Is that where your family originated?’

  ‘My dad did. My mum, as you so rightly guessed, was British.’

  ‘Was? Is she dead?’

  ‘Not exactly. She’s not well. She’s in a psychiatric hospital.’

  ‘I’m sorry. What about your dad?’

  ‘I have never met him. He didn’t know about me till recently. We’ve been in touch but we haven’t met yet.’

  ‘You should go out there.’

  ‘Yes, I know. I will one day. What was going on with you today? You went quiet in the meeting. I could tell that Ramirez was wondering what was the matter too.’

  ‘Did I?’

  ‘What were you thinking?’

  ‘I was probably just tired.’

  ‘It wasn’t that. You were really watching them. You didn’t want to answer Ramirez when he said about having information on you. What was your thinking?’

  ‘Okay, I was just trying to avoid asking too many questions. I don’t want to give them anything they don’t already have.’

  ‘But, how can we work together if we’re not sharing information?’

  ‘I have no idea who they are. They could both be in Tony’s pay for all I know.’

  ‘Is that likely?’

  Ross shrugged. ‘I’m going in now,’ he said, waiting for her to rise from the water. ‘I’m getting hungry.’

  They wrapped their towels around themselves and trotted back up to their apartment.

  Willis changed into her new tunic top and jeans. She had washed her hair and left it to balloon out over her shoulders.

  ‘You look lovely,’ Ross said to her as she came out of the bathroom. She’d brought an eyeliner pencil with her as emergency make-up and she’d put it to use. On the way to the restaurant Willis got a call from Carter.

  ‘I need to take this.’ She pointed to the phone; Ross nodded. He walked on.

  ‘Okay,’ she said to Carter, ‘what is it?’

  ‘Della Butcher has come here with a deal. She has told Tony she can find hundreds of millions of pounds’ worth of missing diamonds from the Great Diamond Heist. It’s bullshit, but she thinks she can convince him. He’s desperate to believe it. He needs the money: he’s got himself in trouble with the cartels and he’s trying to switch suppliers, as we know. She’s offered to try and set him up for us.’

  So, what’s your call on this, Dan?’

  ‘Bowie and I have talked it through with Robbo. We think it’s worth the risk. But we will keep it to just the few that need to know. The more people that we tell, the less likely it is to succeed. Tony still has people in his pay in the Met.’

  ‘Plus, Della stands a big chance of being killed.’

  ‘Yes. She knows that very well.’

  ‘What did Robbo say?’

  ‘He took some convincing. We all did. But we’ve decided to go with it. It could work – straight trade-off, diamonds for cocaine. It will be a helluva coup if it comes off.’

  Willis mulled things over before she replied.

  ‘Does this alter what Ross and I are about to do?’

  ‘We can let Ross in on this when you feel the time is right. The thing is, Eb, the minute we tell them, we run the risk of losing it. The NCA will want to take it off our hands and Della won’t cooperate with them. She will cut her losses and run, I’m sure.’

  ‘She just wants you?’

  ‘Crudely put, yes. She wants the team she knows and trusts.’

  ‘Even though they don’t trust her?’

  ‘There was never proof that she brought down Operation Argos.’

  ‘Maybe we should lose it. This is really a job for the NCA instead of a major investigation.’

  ‘And, in normal circumstances, I would agree, but this is so personal. This is all about a family that me, Bowie, Robbo, all those involved in Operation Argos, know so well. We are the ones who have a chance of finally getting a result, not Ross and the NCA.’

  ‘I think this is too risky for Della. I mean, if this goes wrong, she will be dead at the end of it.’

  ‘She wants to take the risk.’

  ‘You okay with all this, Dan?’

  ‘Yeah, thanks for asking. I’m good with this. This is work. This is about a woman who I trust as a fellow officer and it’s about a massively important operation which could change the face of the UK drugs market, stamp out a whole distribution network.’

  ‘Okay, I get it. You tell me what you want me to look out for when I get to Tony’s, tell me how you want me to play it, and I will.’

  ‘You make sure that when you think about telling Ross, you can be sure he understands he can be part of it but he can’t take this over. Don’t tell him who Della is straightaway – we are referring to her as Contact X. If he agrees to our terms, then fine. You judge it, but make sure you get it right, Eb – loose tongues cost lives.’

  Willis caught up with Ross. The hotel restaurant had just a few people in that evening. They were shown to a window seat with a candle.

  ‘Can we sit further to the back?’ asked Willis.

  Once they were settled they ordered a beer each and Willis drank from the bottle. Ross laughed.

  ‘I don’t know, bra and pants and bottled beer – you’re a classy date!’

  For a few seconds she stared at him, and then she smiled.

  ‘Can we talk about today?’

  ‘Again?’

  ‘Yes, it’s bothering me. I’m supposed to be your partner on this job and I don’t know sometimes if we’re working for different teams or we’re even in the same game.’

  ‘You know I’m authorised to share certain things with you,’ said Ross. ‘If I tell you everything I know about this case, it will just confuse things. We both have our secrets and I’m all right with that. We both have our hands tied, to a certain extent. Let’s just tell one another what we know the other needs to hear, no more, no less.’

  ‘What kind of thing is too much detail?’

  He smiled. ‘Like, all the people who are on the edge of Tony’s life. All the bent policemen he has collected over his time. Not just Tony, all the freemasons within the force. Harold has a fair few of the Met in his pay. I have learned the hard way to trust no one when it comes to huge sums of money. We all know we’re paid a pittance. The temptation is too much for lots of people.’

  ‘Did Harold get in touch with you? What is the likelihood of him wanting to deal?’

  Ross smiled and shrugged.

  ‘I need him to come to me personally. Like I said, he has a few Met officers who would broker a deal for us, but I’m not talking to anyone but the man himself.’

  ‘How can you do your job as a p
olice officer if you don’t trust your colleagues?’

  ‘I am a one-man band. I told you that. I spend a few years in a department then I move on. I’m a troubleshooter. I identify a problem, I eradicate it, I move on.’

  ‘But you’re stuck on this, aren’t you?’

  ‘Yes, I’ve hit a big Butcher-shaped wall. I want to get Tony Butcher more than I’ve ever wanted anything. He has become the case I cannot crack, but I don’t even get a chance to try because he will not step outside his villa. I’ve been here before, Ebony, and I have a horrible feeling I’ll be here again.’

  ‘Okay, thanks for explaining it to me.’ Willis picked up her beer again.

  ‘That’s it?’ Ross asked, amused.

  She nodded. ‘I respect what you’re saying. It makes sense to me. But . . .’

  ‘Thank you.’ He raised his bottle against hers. ‘But what?’

  ‘I know what it’s like to mistrust everyone. I know how it is to watch your back to such an extent that you never turn and face anyone. I know you think it’s called “not letting your guard down”, but without that trust you can’t grow as a human being. It’s cowardice and naivety and ignorance, in its own way. No matter how many times life lets you down you need to go in wide-eyed and hopeful to every day.’

  ‘You are Miss Wide-Eyed and Hopeful, are you?’

  ‘Compared to what I was? Yes I am.’

  ‘And what were you?’

  ‘I’m not telling you that. I’m on a need-to-know basis, remember? Until the day you tell me you care about me as a person, you care about me as a colleague, then we don’t need to know any more about one another.’

  Chapter 38

  Carter walked into the bar on Upper Street and ordered a glass of chilled Sauvignon Blanc. It was one of those formulaic-type bars where the trends mattered most. He and Cabrina usually called in on one of their rare nights out. It would be for pre-dinner drinks. Carter was trying to remember the last time he had been in there. He realised they hadn’t been out for an evening for months. They’d both been away with their mates for stag and hen dos but they hadn’t been out together for ages. That thought made him feel guilty. It would have been his fault. His long hours completely wrecked any plans Cabrina ever made. There were very few weeks when Carter made it home when he said he would.