The Tribes

by Catriona King

  Spence smiled. “You can trust me. I’m good at keeping secrets, remember.” As he headed for the door he turned back. “About the Albanians. I’ve dug a bit further through my contacts and the word is that their big boss is based down south.”

  Craig sighed. “Damn. That could make him harder to find. OK, thanks for that. Call me directly with anything else you get.”

  As Kyle exited he beckoned in Liam and Annette and nodded them to take seats. He gazed at his inspector sympathetically.

  “You look exhausted, Annette.”

  She went to demur then nodded instead. “I am.”

  Craig’s reply was brisk. “OK, when this case is wrapped up I want you to take two weeks annual leave. You’re owed far more than that.”

  She shook her head. “I was planning to take it all after the baby’s born.”

  He smiled at her. “I’m not going to quibble if you take a couple of extra weeks then. God knows you’re owed months for all the overtime you’ve put in.”

  She accepted gratefully.

  “OK, this information can’t leave the room.” He sighed heavily and shook his head. “I think Magnus O’Shea is on the take.”

  Annette’s eyes widened but Liam was unsurprised. He’d seen the note that Davy had handed Craig earlier that day. Annette opened her mouth to speak but Craig held up a hand.

  “Let me tell you why, Annette. When you mentioned that O’Shea was unenthusiastic I initially put it down to his impending retirement, but when he was worse than useless over the girl and tank I began to wonder. We first suspected southern links when we heard the word knacker, then we had two deaths and a pipeline right on the border, so it wasn’t a great surprise when Kyle told me just now that the Albanian gang boss is definitely based in the south. Yet O’Shea apparently knows nothing about anything.”

  He pulled Davy’s note from his pocket and set it on the desk in front of her. “I suspected O’Shea might be on someone’s payroll so I asked Davy to look into his accounts.” She read as he went on. “His ordinary accounts show nothing extraordinary, but Davy dug deeper using his contacts abroad. This is what he’s found so far and he hasn’t even looked very hard.”

  Annette’s jaw dropped. “There’s a fortune there! He’s been deliberately obstructing us. Trying to say he’d found nothing, when he’d probably I.D.ed the girl immediately.”

  Liam nodded wisely. “He’s been on the take all right.”

  Craig shrugged. “We can only speculate how much O’Shea knows and doesn’t know, but I want your assistance to find out.”

  Annette was furious. O’Shea had probably thought he could fool them because Jake was young and she was a woman. The patronising, arrogant… Craig interrupted her thoughts.

  “Annette, as you’ve been dealing with O’Shea I want you to feed him a story. Tell him that you just thought you should give him an update, as he’s the Gardaí liaison on the case. Say we’ve had a very important breakthrough but you can’t say any more on the phone. When you meet say we’ve found that Albanians are involved in the killings. Name Goga and say we think he’s the head of the Belfast cell and that there are more cells in the south. Say we’re hoping to have the name of their overall boss very soon.”

  Liam looked at him quizzically. “Is he the head in Belfast?”

  “Maybe. Anyway, Annette, tell O’Shea we’re planning a sting on Goga tonight and once we have him he’s bound to cough up the names of his boss, his contacts, anyone they’ve bought off-”

  He was interrupted by a loud “Oooh” from Liam. “Nice one. When she mentions bought off she’ll scare the shit out of O’Shea. We might get other bent copper’s names as well.”

  Annette’s face was glum. “If O’Shea has been paid off then it won’t only have been to cover up the gang’s activities and obstruct us. He’ll have told them about everything we’ve done. They’ve been ahead of us all the way!”

  Craig was pragmatic. “There’s nothing we can do about that now. Feed O’Shea the information and say we’re going to lift Goga from a Belfast club tonight.”

  Liam screwed up his face. “Why a club, boss?”

  “Because clubs are where most drug dealing happens other than the street. We can use the club Kyle mentioned; The Pit, I think it’s called. He says that’s where the eastern European gangsters hang out. Check with Karl and Aidan on the chances of Goga being there. We’ll get the information to O’Shea in person a couple of hours before the meet. If I’m right and he is dirty then he’ll try to prevent us lifting Goga.”

  Liam was shaking his head. “If O’Shea’s dirty, the first thing he’ll do is call Goga and warn him we’re on his tail.”

  Annette chipped in. “We could lift him?”

  Craig’s response was emphatic. “No. They have to meet face to face or we won’t have anything.”

  Liam had a suggestion. “We could block O’Shea’s phone so he can’t warn Goga and has no option but to come to Belfast.”

  It was Annette who named the obstacles first. “He might have another line, or email. And there’s no way the phone providers in the south will block O’Shea on our say so. It’s a different country.”

  Craig was two steps ahead of her. “That’s why I want you and Jake to meet O’Shea in Armagh. Once he’s in the north we can get his mobiles and email locked down. We’ll do Goga’s phone and internet at the same time, in case O’Shea attempts contact.”

  Liam interjected. “What if he has another phone?”

  Craig thought for a moment. “OK. O’Shea’s the important one here. Annette, get Jake to slip a tracker and a signal blocker on his car. We’ll just have to hope that even if he realises his mobiles aren’t working and tries to call Goga from a payphone, the line he calls will be Goga’s mobile and we’ll have that blocked as well. It’s the best we can do on short notice. Annette, liaise with Davy on whatever you need. Liam, check with Aidan and Karl on Goga’s haunts before Annette meets O’Shea. Hopefully he uses The Pit like Kyle thinks, if not we’ll name somewhere else to meet.”

  Liam’s eyebrows shot up. “You don’t want much, do you?”

  Craig didn’t answer. “Also, Kyle might have some useful thoughts if you get stuck.”

  Annette was still processing everything. Finally she nodded and stood up. “What time are you aiming for the meet?”

  “Say eleven tonight?”

  “OK. That means we need O’Shea in Armagh no later than nine-thirty, assuming he’ll head straight there once we set the bait. Would you mind if I nipped home to check on the kids before we leave, sir?”

  “Of course not. Go now. Jake will be busy for a while anyway.”

  He waved her out and signalled Liam to follow him off the floor.

  “Where are we going?”

  Craig stepped into the lift. “Reggie texted me to say he’s finished his door-to-door and could we meet him at High Street.”

  “Fair enough.” He thought for a moment. “Do you have any ideas how to get Goga to the club tonight?”

  Craig shook his head cheerfully. “Not a one, but I believe in you implicitly.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  The Lisburn Road, Belfast. 6 p.m.

  “What exactly are we doing here, Ash?”

  Jake reversed his Golf into a tiny space in the terraced street, making Rhonda smile. She was hopeless at parking and admired anyone who wasn’t, but woe betide the person who insinuated it was because of her sex. Her feminist principles lay in very shallow repose, ready to jump up and bite any chauvinist on the ass.

  Ash glanced out the window at where they were before he answered.

  “We’re here because that...” He pointed at a derelict shop. “…is one of two locations in Northern Ireland known to be used by Ronan Miskimmon. I don’t think this will be the one we want but it’s closest so we should rule it out first.”

  It didn’t enlighten them much but Jake opened the door to get out, only to be summoned back.

  “OK, briefly. An IP address
was found last year by a Canadian Hacker, on some drone incidents very similar to ours. They happened before ours started and we think Miskimmon might have been rehearsing then and got careless, so he didn’t hide his IP address as well. The geolocation on it said Belfast, Northern Ireland, and this is the only location we have for Miskimmon in Belfast.”

  Jake was following so far. “What if the computer’s moved since then? Can’t they check its location today?”

  “We’ve tried but the signal’s unreadable. This is all we have to go on.”

  “OK, so you want to search that shop for a computer?”

  Rhonda blanched at the thought of her new jacket getting ruined in the dirt, but Ash’s next words reassured her.

  “Well…yes, but not in the way you mean search.”

  The analyst clambered out of the car with the others following, preparing to be surprised. Jake gestured towards the shop.

  “OK, shoot.”

  Ash warmed to his theme. “OK, Davy and I think Miskimmon’s computers are all linked in what’s called a LAN-”

  Rhonda jumped in. “Local area network. We did those in computing A-level.”

  Ash nodded. “Exactly. We have the IP addresses of the three computers the boss retrieved from Miskimmon’s place in Moygashel but none of them have the IP we’re looking for. We can’t even turn those on because Miskimmon’s got them so protected, but we know they’re still emitting signals so…” He pointed to his bag “We’re hoping the signal from one of them will help us detect the fourth computer on the LAN when it’s nearby.”

  Jake was sceptical. “How near?”

  “Twenty metres indoors and more than that outdoors, providing there’s a Wi-Fi hotspot.”

  The detective swept his hand in an arc. “We’re in the Golden Mile, Ash. There’ll be more Wi-Fi hotspots round here than you can shake a stick at.”

  The Lisburn and Malone Roads were known as Belfast’s Golden Mile because of their conspicuous wealth.

  “So go on. Do your stuff.”

  Ash knew a Doubting Thomas when he saw one and it made him determined to prove Jake wrong. When they reached the shop door he handed Rhonda the laptop bag and turned on the Bluetooth device Des had given him.

  “Stand in the doorway please, Rhonda.”

  She did as she was asked, watching in fascination as the Bluetooth detected four Wi-Fi hotspots immediately.

  Ash showed the detector to the sergeant. “These four are within a few feet of us.” He walked back to the car and shouted across. “This is about twenty metres and I’ve got another three.” He turned on his smart-pad and mined each of the signals in turn, but the only device he recognised was the laptop Rhonda was holding in the bag.

  He tried closer to the shop’s door, and one final time inside, Rhonda handing Jake the bag but declining to go in. Finally Ash shook his head in defeat and signalled their return to the car. Once inside again he explained.

  “I detected the laptop we brought with us, but there’s no other computer connected to its LAN around here. We need to go to Moygashel.”

  As Jake drove towards the M1, Ash knew it was their last chance to put Ronan Miskimmon away for life.

  ****

  High Street Station. 6.30 p.m.

  The interview room looked like a briefing room after a particularly long session, with cups of coffee and biscuits everywhere and five men in their shirt sleeves, four with their ties hanging loose. Craig noted with amusement that Reggie wore a tie even when on holiday. It was something that his father had always done but there were two decades between the men. A tieless Andy sat in the middle of the group; a hobbit in the land of giants, minus the hairy feet. A hobbit in a big fat mess.

  Reggie took a gulp of his tea and made a face. “This is cold, Jack.”

  Harris’ response was barely audible.

  Liam perked up. “What did he say?”

  Craig yawned before he answered; it had been a long day. “The bits without swearing sounded like ‘who am I? Your wife?’”

  Harris grunted in confirmation so Craig gestured Liam towards the door.

  “Go and make some fresh tea, Liam. The pizzas will be here in a minute.”

  “Andy can make it. He needs to stretch his legs.”

  It made everyone but Andy laugh. When Liam had grudgingly obliged and Jack had collected the pizzas from reception, Craig returned to the reason they were there.

  “OK, we’ve spent an hour trying to figure how to get Andy out of this mess, and so far we haven’t got enough. Reggie, do you have anything useful?”

  Reggie seized two pieces of Hawaiian before Liam could get at them and then started to speak in his soft Donegall voice.

  “So…I went to the block you live in, Andy, with a CCTV photo of the man that Davy supplied. I went door-to-door, trying to find anyone he might have been visiting, and the long and the short of it is he wasn’t seeing anyone in your block that night.”

  Andy leaned forward eagerly. “He wouldn’t have been if he was there to kill the girl.”

  Reggie nodded. “Indeed.”

  Craig gulped down a mouthful of crust and asked a question. “Did anyone remember buzzing him in?”

  Reggie shook his head and Andy’s heart sank.

  “Not buzzing him in. No.” He paused for what seemed like an eternity before starting again. “But a young couple remembered him following them in through the front door.”

  Andy jabbed a finger in the air. “You see! He didn’t know anyone in the block and he didn’t have a key, so he had to slip in. That’s suspicious, especially late at night.”

  Craig looked at Liam to see if he had a comment, but he was submitting a pepperoni slice to a grim death.

  “OK, so we’re pretty sure this man shouldn’t have been there, and we know he got off at Andy’s floor and turned down the stretch of corridor Andy’s flat is on. What we don’t have is him entering or leaving the flat.”

  Reggie signalled to speak again. “We have him on CCTV entering at four a.m. and leaving again at four-thirty, and the girl’s TOD was set as between four and five. It’s pretty coincidental, sir.”

  Craig made a face. “Coincidence won’t acquit someone, unfortunately…” He saw Andy’s immediate panic at the mention of prosecution, made worse by Liam placing a napkin on his head like a hanging judge. “Stop winding him up, Liam. What I was about to add was, although Andy’s Glock was definitely the murder weapon forensics didn’t find any prints on it or on the safe, which in itself is an anomaly. Andy says he put the gun in the safe before he went out that evening, so the lack of his prints on both of them is a flag. It suggests everything was wiped, and why would Andy have wiped things in his own house, even supposing he was fit enough to do it?” He stared at the weary looking D.C.I. “The prints had to have been wiped after the gun was used and we know you were barely upright when you left the bar. John says your blood level of Ketamine was so high that a horse would have been knocked out.” He took a sip of tea. “We also have the fact that the victim was involved in two of our murder cases. So…all together, it looks like a setup.” He paused before deciding to stick his neck out. “I’m hopeful we can introduce sufficient doubt.”

  Andy’s eyes lit up. “I’m free?”

  Craig shook his head. “Not until the P.P.S. formally declines to prosecute.” He glanced at his watch and stood up. “Keep eating your pizza and I’ll be back.”

  He left the room to the sound of Liam making choking noises and mimicking hanging by a rope, making Andy push away his still full plate. Jack followed Craig into the office.

  “The P.P.S. charging team?”

  “Please, Jack. I know it’s late but see if you can get me through.”

  A ten minute conversation later where Craig outlined the evidence, and the decision they all wanted to hear came down the line. He hurried to tell Andy and then halted outside the interview room, thinking again. There was a reason Andy had ended up in this mess and he needed to be taught a lesson so t
hat it didn’t recur.

  He re-entered the room wearing a glum expression.

  “Stand please, D.C.I. Angel.”

  As Andy staggered to his feet even Liam looked shocked by Craig’s demeanour. “Here, boss. They can’t seriously be charging-”

  Craig cut across him. “Detective Chief Inspector Angel, following my conversation with the Public Prosecution Service.” Andy gripped the back of his chair with both hands and everyone in the room knew the image in his mind; a six feet by eight feet cell for the next twenty years. “It has been decided that you will be charged-”

  Liam’s noisy “Here now” and Reggie’s “Dear God” added to the clamour inside Andy’s head. His heart was thudding and his ears rang so loudly that he didn’t hear Craig’s next words.

  “With gross stupidity.”

  Only the sudden grin on Liam’s face made Andy look at the others, to see Reggie looking relieved and a stunned Jack gawping at their boss. Craig nodded Andy to sit before he fell and kept talking, louder so that he could hear every word.

  “You’re a complete bloody idiot, Andy, but the P.P.S. agreed with me that there was insufficient evidence to charge you. You were saved by your blood levels of Ketamine and John’s statement that you couldn’t have moved with it on board, never mind fired a gun. I want you to go home and rest for a few days-”

  Andy shook his head immediately. “I can’t go back there.”

  Craig didn’t blame him. “OK, it’s still a crime scene for now so we’ll sort out a hotel.” His voice dropped ominously, reminding Liam of his dad’s when he’d done something wrong. “Sometime next week you and I are going to have a serious chat, D.C.I. Angel. There’s a reason you were targeted by a honey trap and that reason could make you vulnerable again. OK?”

  Andy nodded mutely, knowing that he was right. He needed to get his life in order and stop falling for any woman who threw him a smile.

  Craig sat down. “OK, now. Finish your food and then Jack will get you a ride home to collect some clothes and book you into a hotel. Reggie, thanks for your help on this and please apologise to your wife for me.”