The Mallorcan Bookseller (The 3R International Series Book 1)

by PETE DAVIES

  Rob then noticed that even as Raj was trying to close the deal with him, he was looking at his social media accounts on his desk top. This gave him the opening to drill deeper into Raj and find his bank of personal photos, Bingo! He was looking at Raj standing outside a building with a group of his friends – some of whom Rob could see also worked in the call centre. It only took a moment to look at Google Maps at the location from Raj’s computer IP address to see that it was the building from the one in Raj’s pictures.

  Rob had one last thing to try to access. The call centre payment files. He could see them, but they would probably be password protected, so the next step was get Raj to access these files by agreeing to pay the nine hundred quid, which he would pay using the credit card details Carruthers had given him to use for such events. Even though it wasn’t his money, he hated giving the scammers anything, but it was necessary to continue the deception for the time being.

  “Okay, Raj, I don’t think I’ve got any option but to pay. So how do we do this?”

  “Steve, you won’t be disappointed.”

  Rob smiled and thought, ‘No, I won’t, but I bet you and your boss will be soon enough.’

  Raj then brought up the payment box and Rob saw him enter a password, just as he had expected to happen and he noted it down. Raj then went ahead and asked for Steve’s credit card details before he then processed the payment. Once it had gone through, Rob saw Raj take off the lock on Steve’s screen and as if by magic, everything was working again.

  “It should be all good now, so thanks for calling us Steve and don’t hesitate to get back in touch for any further support on this number.”

  “Thanks Raj for all your help. You don’t know what a big help you’ve been,” said Rob with a smile.

  Whilst Raj thought his victim had signed off, Rob was in fact still monitoring the CCTV in the call centre room and he’d now started working on the payment files using Raj’s password. He quickly trawled back and found the entry on the day Bill Patterson had been scammed and found the operator had been someone called Sajid. He remembered seeing a Sajid who had been tagged in one of Raj’s photos and so it didn’t take him long to then find Sajid in the call centre room. Sajid was talking to someone called Andrew. Another scam, another victim being taken for a ride. He listened in a little longer and decided to search for the payment file Sajid was working in. Andrew had been completely taken in and was at the payment stage. He had agreed to pay an introductory rate of €799 on his credit card.

  “What’s the payment address Andrew?” asked Sajid.

  Andrew gave an address in Port de Sóller, Mallorca and was about to read out his credit card details, when Rob cut off the call. Sajid didn’t know what was happening and tried calling Andrew back, but Rob had already dialled the mobile he had seen on the payment screen and so blocked Sajid’s attempted call back. He saw the confusion on Sajid’s face and smiled.

  “One less victim for you to crow about, you useless piece of shit.”

  At that moment Andrew answered his mobile.

  “Hello, hello, Sajid is that you? I think our call dropped out.”

  “Andrew, please don’t be alarmed. I’m here to help you. I’ve terminated your call with Sajid as you were just about to be scammed for €799 when there is nothing wrong with your computer that a quick two minute fix won’t solve,” said Rob.

  “Now just a moment, I don’t know who the hell you are,” said Andrew.

  “I appreciate that Andrew, so please call the police in Palma and ask for Detective Inspector Lori Garcia. She is currently investigating these scams. Please do not answer any more calls on this mobile until I speak to you again. This is because the scammers will try to reach you again.”

  “I’m not sure who the hell I should trust, but call the police you say? Okay, I’ll do that, but you will fix my bloody computer won’t you? The damned thing’s frozen,” said Andrew.

  Rob smiled. Despite nearly being taken for almost eight hundred euros, all poor old Andrew was really worried about was clearing his screen.

  “Yes, of course, let’s do that now should we,” said Rob. “Tell me what your screen is showing at the moment?”

  Andrew described the Intertech pop-up that was blocking the screen. It was simple enough to get him to click a couple of keys and the pop-up disappeared.

  “Is that it? But they wanted €799 for that.”

  “It’s a scam Andrew, there was nothing actually wrong with your computer. They had just put a jammer onto your screen causing it to block and to show a phone number for you to call. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time,” said Rob.

  “I have no idea what you have done or how you’ve done it, but thank you so much for your help. How can I thank you? And who are you?” said Andrew.

  “No need to thank me Andrew. You can call me Rob and yes, it’s okay to give the Inspector my name, but just the Inspector please because this is an-going operation. Oh, and Andrew, if Sajid rings again, please do not give the game away,” said Rob.

  “Yes, yes, of course and thank you again,” said Andrew.

  Rob took one last look at Sajid who was looking very confused, unable to fathom out how he had just lost a €799 payment, before returning to the payment files he had found. These would be really useful in discovering where the money went, although he’d need some good old fashioned digital legwork, but he should soon be able to create an organisational structure of who was running this call centre operation.

  He rang Anna.

  “Okay Anna, we’re in. It’s a call centre in the Andheri West district of Mumbai. They have about twenty people working there and the guy who did the deal with Bill Patterson was someone called Sajid. Nasty piece of work, but whilst I was looking at their CCTV I managed to ruin his day, by screwing up a deal he was about to do for nearly eight hundred euros with a guy called Andrew from Port de Sóller.”

  Anna just shook her head and thought ‘I’m feeling all of my sixty nine years when this young man can do all of this so quickly!’

  “Rob, this may be simple stuff for you, but wow, am I impressed!”

  “No problem Anna. If I can help take these scumbags down, then that’s all I want to do. Okay, so first things first. Andrew is going to be ringing your Inspector Garcia, or is it Inspectora in Spanish? Please can you get a message to her to tell her the call is kosher? Then give me the rest of the day and maybe a bit of tomorrow to work on gathering as much data as I can to ID the boss of the outfit, together with an organisational chart showing how it all interlinks. That should give you guys something concrete to work on in terms of who is running this and where they are based.”

  “Rob, that’s fantastic and you’re right, it is Inspectora,” said Anna, “and Rob, thank you for this, but also for helping whoever Andrew is. It sounds like he needed your help and got it just in time.”

  “It was my pleasure. I told you it would be fun,” said Rob.

  *****

  Greg took the call from Anna just as he was arriving at the gated entrance to the MacDonald villa and he phoned Lori straight away.

  “Hello, how is your day going Señora?” said Greg.

  “Ah, Señor Chambers, yes I am well. I suppose you are ringing about your English friend, Andrew from Port de Sóller?” said Lori who was sitting in a room with her team.

  “Can’t talk then? So yes, I am calling about Andrew. I don’t have any other details, but we’ve had some help in tracking down the scammers. They are in India and we’ve got the area they are operating in. Probably not a resource you could legitimately use Lori, but we’ve been given access to a professional scambuster. I think that’s the sort of term they use anyway.”

  “Can you trust them?” said Lori.

  “I think so. They come from a very solid source.”

  She thought for a moment. She didn’t really want to know any more, not officially anyway. He was right, she couldn’t use these type of people, but getting the intel from them
was the next best thing.

  “Maybe we should meet?”

  “Yes, 8.30 okay for you. I’ll pick you up,” said Greg.

  “Si, Señor Chambers that will be fine. We’ll speak later.”

  She put her phone back down on her desk and caught Nino looking at her from across the other side of the desk.

  “What?” she said.

  “So is that a meeting with a victim’s representative, or a dinner date?” said Nino.

  “None of your business. Get back to work Sergeant,” said Lori trying to hide a smile.

  FOURTEEN

  John MacDonald was happy to be back in the villa. He hadn’t really been able to settle in the hotel.

  Cap Rocat was a marvellous place and he was so glad they were protected from any prying eyes, especially the Press, as he didn’t think he could have dealt with them, but it felt good to be back at the villa.

  The difficult thing was that it had brought it home to him all over again that Sheila was gone. She had been stolen from him and he felt empty. He was glad he had his boys there as there were a hundred and one things to do regarding her death, including starting the difficult job of sorting out Sheila’s things, but he also hadn’t had a chance yet to sit down with the small team of staff they had to help run the house.

  Nearly all of them had been with them since they built the place, so he knew they must be feeling bad as well, especially Consuela, who kept the house in such immaculate condition and who had become like a part of the family. She had been standing in the kitchen when they got there. She seemed like she was rooted to the spot, unable to move. He could see her bloodshot tear-stained eyes. He took hold of her and gave her a hug and she sobbed. That started him off as well and he wept unashamedly. Chris and Jack came in with the luggage and came and hugged them both. The boys looked upon Consuela as their Spanish grandmother and she held them tight. The release of emotion seemed to help all of them.

  “Could you get some tea on please Consuela?” said John.

  “Si, Señor John.”

  As beautiful as the inside of the villa was, it was the garden that had been Sheila’s pride and joy. She had spent so much of her time lovingly designing and landscaping the land around the villa. She was a hands-on gardener, working alongside Pepe and Juan, her two long-serving gardeners who helped turn her dreams into reality. He would watch her from the villa and just love the enjoyment and delight she took from keeping it looking so wonderful. The guys were still there. He could see them working away at the bottom of the garden, keeping it looking good for her, even though she had gone. They turned and waved at him. The welcome was warm, but they looked as lost as he was without Sheila.

  *****

  Greg pushed the intercom and Chris answered.

  “Come on in Greg.”

  The electric doors started to open and Greg drove the van up the driveway and parked beside the Lexus. Chris came out to meet him.

  “Good to see you Greg.”

  “How’s your dad?”

  “He’s doing okay, considering. We’ve all had a few tears. It just seems very odd being here without Mum. Dad was often away on business and we would be here just with Mum, so her not being here just doesn’t feel right,” said Chris.

  They walked in and got the greetings out of the way. John wanted to know what was happening.

  “We’ve been focusing on the scam today and we’ve got some good progress there. It’s coming from a call centre in India as we thought, but now we have a specific area within Mumbai. The guy who is working on it is coming back to me with more on the organisation set-up. That way we can look to ID the money trail. If we’re going to hurt these people we need to get to the money John and if we can, put them out of business,” said Greg.

  “I won’t bother asking how you managed to get this information Greg, but it’s a bloody good start.”

  “Networks John, just like in your business. I’m seeing Lori Garcia tonight and I should get an update on what she’s doing with the OCG.” He saw John looking puzzled. “Sorry, bloody acronyms, the organised crime gang, the guys who did the burglary and….”

  “Murdered Sheila,” finished John.

  “Yes. Lori’s going to disrupt what they’re doing on the island and look for the fallout. Identifying who actually killed Sheila may be hard John. Not impossible, just hard.”

  John looked at him.

  “I do understand Greg and I do appreciate, really I do, what you and Terri are doing. But let me be quite clear here. When an organisation is not forthcoming in providing the person or persons responsible for an act that has caused harm or distress, then it is the senior management who must bear total responsibility.”

  John stood up and walked away from the table and out into the kitchen. Greg looked at Chris and Jack.

  “Well I think I got the message on that one,” said Greg quietly.

  *****

  Sam had been speaking with Jimmy during the day about any intel on the Armenian OCG structure. They were known to be operating in a couple of areas in London and in some of the major cities across Europe, as well as the east coast of the United States. Jimmy could only find a limited amount on Sonny, although he thought that when he had taken over the Balearics about three years ago, it had been the result of a change authorised from the top, from Sergei Grigoryan, the big boss back in Yerevan, Armenia. He was just coming off the phone to Jimmy when he heard his mother shouting.

  “Sam, Sam, it’s Bill. We need to get home,” said Anna.

  “What’s happened?” said Sam.

  “I’m not sure. He’s very confused and I think he might be hurt.”

  “Come on, let’s go. You can tell me the rest on the way.”

  There wasn’t much traffic about, so he made good progress as she told him more of what Bill had said.

  “He was out in the garden and heard someone knocking on the front door. I think he said there were two of them. They were asking for me and then they thought he was your dad, but when he told them who he was, they started asking him questions,” said Anna.

  “Have they gone Mum? Did Bill confirm they have gone?”

  “Yes, yes, but they hurt him.”

  “We’re nearly there Mum, but what sort of questions, did he manage to say?”

  “Why was he there? How did he know me? Did he know you? That was about all he could say,” said Anna.

  “I think we need to tell DI Garcia about this. Can you ring her and I’ll get in and check on Bill?” said Sam.

  She knew immediately that he didn’t want her going into the house before he checked it out. She made the call.

  “Inspectora Garcia, it’s Sam’s mother, yes, I’m using his phone. Look we’re at my house. I think we’ve had some unwelcome visitors and Sam has gone in to check on Bill Patterson. He thinks it may be the Armenians.”

  “Señora Martínez. Please wait outside as Sam asks. We will be there very soon,” said Lori.

  Lori had stood up and Nino, having heard the gist of the call, was already getting his keys, sidearm and protective jacket.

  “Nino, with me and get Pérez to take his team and start heading south towards Portals Nous and I’ll get the address for them in a moment.”

  She found the address and radioed Pérez the details just as Sam phoned her.

  “Sam, what’s happening?” said Lori.

  “We’re okay. Bill’s shaken up and has had a couple of nasty slaps to the head. He managed to see they were in a dark blue BMW, either a 5 or 7 series, he wasn’t sure. No registration plate, but it looked pretty new. He thinks there were just two of them in the car, the two who came to see him. Fortunately for us, he’s a tough old boy, ex-military, so he’s done bloody well to take all this in.”

  “I’ll get all this intel out and we’ll be with you in about ten.”

  Pérez would have taken two cars, but with the additional information on the BMW, Lori got him to deploy the rest of the GEO team and put in a wide area search. She had a tea
m of twenty in total, with six cars and a motorcycle. Half of the cars were in full police livery and the others were unmarked, including the bike that they could use as loose surveillance vehicles, together with some of the team in plain clothes, ready for foot surveillance if required.