A nod from John, and Des picked up the gauntlet. “Agreed. The gelatine sphere broke down as it hit the stomach and released the Strychnine.”
Liam grinned. “Then bye-bye.”
Craig rolled his eyes. “Try not to sound so cheerful about it, Liam, they were murdered.”
The D.C.I. adopted such an exaggerated mournful expression that the others struggled not to laugh.
Des went on. “I’ve confirmed through prints on the bags of tablets that Morris placed the poison in the dead men’s cells.”
“Good.” Craig wrote up the number two. “So how did any of the drugs get into Mahon? In particular how did the poisoned diazepam get in?”
Having heard quite enough of his own voice Craig held out the pen to his deputy and took a seat. Liam sprang to his feet cheerfully, demonstrating once again that he laughed in the face of alcohol.
“Right, so the stiffs must’ve got stiff because....” He ignored the series of groans and disapproving looks that his words provoked, continuing with, “... they weren’t only addicts, they were also dealing inside Mahon. Their supplies came in on drones through the prison drain system, and we found their collection point.”
Craig gave a loud cough. “Who found it? Who was up to his eyes in an oily pit?”
The D.C.I. waved away the objection. “Ach, OK, so you got a bit of oil on you, but I was down there with you in spirit.” Sensing confusion in some of the audience who hadn’t been at the evening before’s briefing he described the mechanics’ pit and the prison’s drainage system, ending with, “So a titchy drone was sent in from a petrol station across the way.” He turned to Davy. “Anything more on that?”
It was Ash who replied, tapping his smart-pad to activate the LED Screen and display the smallest drone that any of them had seen.
“This is a DJI drone. At full extension it could easily have made it through the drains into the prison as long as the operator was skilled.” A second slide appeared, displaying the layout of Mahon Prison’s drains. “The pathway I’ve coloured yellow is the route the drone took from the petrol station outside.” He turned to his boss. “By the way, I’ve looked and there was nothing from traffic, shop or any other cams to show who was controlling it at the petrol station end.” His tone implied a sticking out tongue.
Craig added. “OK, good. We found marks where the cover in the workshop had been unscrewed. What about the one at the petrol station?”
“There was evidence it had been opened recently, and it was printed.” The analyst turned to Des. “Doctor Marsham?”
The scientist nodded. “I’ve confirmed Jerome Tomelty’s prints on the drain cover at the petrol station, and the same prints were on a large bag of poisoned drugs that we found in Jimmy Morris’ cell.”
Craig was shocked. “Tomelty’s prints were on the poisoned drugs?”
The information was confirmed by a nod.
Aidan jumped in. “He’s at High Street now and I’ve got uniforms searching his house.”
Craig shook his head slowly, thinking. “Jerome Tomelty didn’t kill Smyth and Pojello. Tomelty may well have handled the poisoned drugs and sent them into Mahon on a drone, but my bet is he didn’t know that they were poisoned when he did so. Jim Morris must have found out about the operation and used Tomelty as a dupe in the death of his partners.”
Aidan grinned. “That’s exactly what I said.”
Craig was still thinking. “The question is why implicate Tomelty in the killings?” He found two possible answers. “The obvious one was to cover Morris’ ass, but I think that was secondary, I think someone really wanted leverage over Tomelty. Perhaps to blackmail him do what they wanted at some point.”
Annette was gawping at him. “So Jerome Tomelty was definitely involved in drug dealing?”
“Yes, sorry, I forgot not everyone knows. Liam can bring you up to date on last night’s raid, but basically Tomelty got cold feet and didn’t turn up at the harbour. We saw him afterwards and he was obviously as guilty as sin but we didn’t have enough to arrest him, although D.C.S. White and Customs got a good haul off the boat so we’re still hoping that Tomelty’s contact on the ship’s crew might talk.”
He turned to Aidan. “Did Tomelty say anything when you lifted him?”
“Nothing, but we’re searching his place now so what are the odds we find that drone?”
“Here’s hoping.”
Liam was still on ‘leverage’. “Leverage for what, boss?”
“What do you think?”
Liam’s eyes widened slowly. “The clever buggers! You think that now Smyth and Pojello are out of the way, the combo makers are going to blackmail Tomelty to get his drug supplies from the boats.”
“Wouldn’t you? If blackmail fails they’ll probably kill him and take over the imports themselves, so right now he’s safer in a cell. Anyway, while we’re with you, Liam, bring people up to date, please.”
The D.C.I. got to it. “OK, so the Tomelty, Pojello and Smyth drug ring-”
He was halted almost immediately by a curious Ryan. “Could I just ask what made you look seriously at Tomelty in the first place?”
Craig took the question. “You can ask, but we can’t answer fully, and that should be an answer in itself.”
When he still looked confused, Mary mouthed, “Undercover” prompting a slow, “Aahh” as Liam picked things up again.
“OK, so those three were dealing drugs inside, and we think outside Mahon, and they were getting their supplies in through the docks. Hence last night’s haul.”
He nodded at Andy White to elaborate, taking the opportunity to take a slug of his now cold tea as the D.C.S. outlined what they’d seized and the lines of enquiry that had now opened up for him and the SOC team to pursue.
After gazing pleadingly at Alice for fresh drinks and finally getting a grudging, “Huh” that saw her shuffle on her sore dance feet from her chair to the kitchen, Liam took back the briefing once again.
“OK, so, it’s fair to say that although Smyth and Pojello had crossed gang lines, no gang would be stupid enough to order a hit on another’s man because it would start a war, so we reckon that the big cheeses in both UKUF and The BMs agreed to hit our two Vics-”
Mary nodded. “A pact between Rory McCrae and...” she frowned “But the head of The BMs isn’t Hugh Bellner.”
Annette shook her head. “There’s an official boss who runs the day-to-day operations, but Bellner’s the really big cheese, especially on drugs, so he would have authorised the hits.”
It prompted Craig to rise to his feet again and reach out for the marker. “Thanks, Liam; I’ll take it from here.”
He wrote up the name Hugh Bellner in capitals.
“Right, Hugh Bellner, as Annette said he’s the lead on drugs for The BMs here so he’s the man we’re focusing on in these murders. What do we know about him? Aged forty-eight, born in Vilnius in Lithuania, he got rich in the gang wars that developed when the USSR fell. Some members of The BMs then looked abroad for new markets, and one of Bellner’s choices was here.”
“Lucky us.”
“As Liam says, lucky old Ireland attracted Hugh Bellner’s attention and he’s a nasty piece of work. He will definitely have killed in the past even if he hasn’t been caught for it, and we know that he’s heavily into drug dealing and gambling-”
Davy signalled to interrupt. “Bellner doesn’t have a record anywhere that I can find, chief.”
“Then we can add slippery to his CV. Any trace of combos internationally?”
The analyst shook his head. “If they exist they’re flying well under the radar.”
“OK, thanks. Right, so we believe it may have been gambling that first brought Bellner into contact with Rory McCrae. McCrae operates out of a bookies and runs a lot of street games. Annette, tell us what more D.C.I. Hamill gave you.”
“He said McCrae has a lot of men. Providing protection at most of Belfast’s night-time venues as door staff, as well as dealing at s
treet level. Whereas Bellner only has a core of five men around him, because even though he’s essentially the Chairman of The BMs here the gang doesn’t like to associate itself with drugs, so Bellner carries out that trade at a distance.”
Andy Angel nodded, seeing the pieces falling into place. “So you’re saying McCrae’s men are going to act as Bellner’s drug distribution network.”
Craig nodded. “That has to be the reason they hooked up. And we believe the network’s first task will be to distribute freebies of the combos to get people hooked.”
Annette had a suggestion. “Won’t McCrae’s men only working at the lower end, mass-market end? They’re too rough to speak to the toffs.”
Craig nodded. “Yep. So McCrae’s men will trial a few simple combos in the nightclubs where they’re bouncers, and if they’re a success then production will ramp up. Meanwhile, Bellner will start offering the bespoke end to his richer clientele.”
Andy White chipped in. “They’ll be careful with the strengths and combinations at first, hey. The last thing they need is someone dying and drawing our attention to what they’re up to before it’s really got off the ground.”
Annette and John shook their heads simultaneously and the pathologist waved her to speak. “It only takes one person who’s susceptible to heart disease and it’ll happen anyway, no matter how low the dose.”
“But as long as it can’t be traced back to our bastards they won’t care, hey. Meanwhile, the gimmick of a drug with a liquid centre will appeal to the market so much that they’ll be millionaires within a few months.”
Craig agreed. “That’s probably what Bellner’s banking on. Make money quickly and then move the operation somewhere else, probably down south. We need to stop them before they do.” He turned to Liam. “You took Tommy back to see McCrae, so tell everyone what the word was.”
“Fuck mostly.” Before Annette or the newly reappeared Alice could object, the D.C.I. feigned innocence and added, “That’s what Tommy said to McCrae, I mean. Along with other very naughty words.”
Craig stifled a smile, knowing that he’d sworn deliberately to liven up the debate.
“OK, so apart from the swearing, what else happened?”
“Well, Tommy wasn’t best pleased with his son and heir, put it like that, although I couldn’t be sure whether he was most pissed at McCrae for the drugs, for working with a Catholic, or for allowing one of his own men to get bumped off in the nick.”
Annette shook her head. “It’s sad. D.C.I. Hamill said that Smyth and McCrae were close when they were kids.”
“Aye well.” Liam began chuckling. “So much for that. But, honestly, you should have seen Tommy go at him. It was quite a show-”
Aidan interjected, “Which you didn’t try to stop, I hope.”
Liam scoffed at the very idea of it. “Oh, aye, that’s me, the humanitarian who steps in to stop two hoods knocking six shades of shit out of each other. What do you think? I stood back and clapped until McCrae pleaded for mercy and then gave up Bellner as his partner, chapter and verse.”
“Excellent. Where’s McCrae now?”
“High Street. Jack’s given him his best north-facing cell, just to depress him even more.”
Craig smiled at the thought of it. “Rory McCrae will be going away for quite a while, which means Tommy’s back in charge of UKUF for now. Although, I’m hoping not for too long. He was happy in his retirement.”
Liam shrugged. “I’d rather Tommy was in charge than some eejit who’d let the men run amok. He’ll stamp out the drugs stuff PDQ, and any working with other gangs.”
“There’s always that.” Craig turned to Andy Angel. “Which brings us to the next and I’m hoping final phase of the operation. Andy, tell us about what happened today please.”
As a subdued Andy outlined the assault on Vice’s confidential informant and Annette detailed her failure to find Bellner at home, Craig helped himself to the strongest coffee that he could find on the tray Alice had set down, almost hoovering it out of the mug. He swallowed the last drop just as Andy finished and rose to stand by the board again.
“Right, that’s us up to date. The next steps will be to get any outstanding updates from you and then we need to find and secure Hugh Bellner. That’s going to be messy. He’s not at home, and I’ve had uniforms searching all of his known haunts for the past hour with no luck-”
He saw Davy signalling to cut in and waved him on.
“Try Zenith. D.C.I. Hamill said it was Bellner’s headquarters and we’ve almost confirmed him as one of its owners now.”
Craig agreed but needed to know how he’d reached the conclusion. “I thought you couldn’t find any of the names behind it.”
“W...We couldn’t via Companies House, or even through the Rosco Enterprises lead from Vice. Then Ash suggested going the other route, through Bellner’s finances, s...so we followed the trail of thousands of pounds worth of payments from an old Lithuanian bank account of his to a builder in Dublin who did renovation work on Zenith in June. With a bit more time we should be able to nail it down.”
Liam nodded emphatically. “Bellner owns the place all right. No-one pays to have somewhere renovated unless they’ve got a financial stake in it.” He pulled a face. “Trust me. I paid out enough on our flipping conservatory last year.”
Craig turned to another of his chief inspectors. “Andy, what your view on Zenith being Bellner’s headquarters?”
The D.C.I. gave a nod. “It makes sense. Rebecca’s informant works there as a croupier so where else could she have heard about the drug combo?”
Annette injected a note of caution. “That’s definitely what she was going to tell Rebecca? I thought she wasn’t sure.”
“And still won’t be until the girl can speak again, but she’d definitely mentioned combo before and why else would she have been beaten half to death? Either the combos were discussed at Zenith or she actually saw some there.”
He turned back to Craig. “You’ve been searching for Bellner all day and he can’t be found, so surely it makes sense Zenith is where he’s holed up.”
Craig turned to his analyst. “Davy?”
“No sign of him on street or traffic cams, chief, but they only retain the tapes for three hours. Bellner could have gone to Zenith early this morning and st...still be inside.”
Before the detective could respond, his deputy asked the very question that had been on his mind.
“With everything that’s happened, boss, do you think Bellner will still push ahead with trialling his combo?”
It crystallised Craig’s thoughts. “I think if anything he’ll accelerate it. If Bellner has the jungle telephone we think he has then he must have heard that the girl’s in the ICU but still alive, and that she was brought there by the police. He may even have heard about our raid on the docks last night. As soon as he finds out that McCrae’s been lifted he’ll worry that his distribution networks to the clubs is about to disappear and he’ll want to get the samples out there before it does.”
“But he can’t distribute after that without McCrae’s men.”
“Not true. As soon as he’s sure the kids are keen on his offering he can replace McCrae’s men at the clubs with his own hires, but he needs McCrae’s men for that initial access so his time is very tight now.”
Any small doubts that Craig might have held had faded as he was speaking and now he was absolutely sure of his ground; Hugh Bellner was going to release his first combination drugs into Belfast’s clubs that night, and once they were out there and word spread, market demand would fire itself.
Liam was sure as well.
“Then tonight’s all that Bellner needs. He could disappear tomorrow but there’d already be so much demand for the shit that he could return even stronger in a few months time. We have to lift him before even one of those combos gets out the street.”
Craig nodded briskly and rose to his feet. “And until we arrest him we have to starve him of his market.
OK. Liam, go back and see Tommy and get him to withdraw his men from all their Belfast’s clubs and bars tonight, and all UKUF dealing anywhere has to stop now. Now. No wind-down period. Don’t tell him about the combos but do mention drug-addicted kids, and ask how he would like it if it was his granddaughter? That should do the trick.” He paused before adding. “And tell him if he gives us his full cooperation on this then we’ll be grateful.”
They all knew that might mean turning a blind eye to some lesser misdemeanour in the future and it left a bitter taste in Craig’s mouth, but that was a problem for another day.
“Aidan and Ryan. I need you to visit every club, bar and pub in south and east Belfast. Annette and Mary, you take the north and west, and all of you take some uniforms along, please, and I don’t want any argument about it. They can stay in the car but I want them there just in case things get out of hand. Tell the club owners we’d really like them to stay closed tonight. Jack sent out some flyers earlier and Davy can print more off to take with you. Put them out anywhere that you can find.”
Annette looked doubtful. “It’s coming up to Christmas, and Wednesday’s a big club night, sir. I can’t see them agreeing to shut; they would lose a lot of money.”
Craig sighed, knowing that she was right.
“I know, but try. If they won’t close then tell them we expect their cooperation to prevent any drugs, and I mean any, including weed, being dealt tonight. Even outside their doors on the street-”
Liam cut in. “Threaten their licenses and say we’ll make their lives hell if they won’t stay shut, the miserable buggers. Tell them we’ll park a car outside for a month and the first kid we find coming out stoned we’ll shut them down for good.”
Craig laughed. “You forgot to add that we’d water board them.”
“Don’t joke. I would.” The D.C.I. went on. “Some of them might refuse because they’re afraid of the gangs they pay protection to, so reassure them that we’ll have their backs there.”
Craig nodded. “Good idea. But none of you are to mention Bellner or the combos. This is likely to get back to his ears and I don’t want him hearing his own name. And don’t forget any illegal clubs, X-Rated, gambling dens etcetera. I don’t want one person in Belfast taking a combination drug tonight.”
Crossing The Line Page 37