by PETE DAVIES
“I know it’s bad news, so stop shaking and just tell me what you saw.”
“There were cops everywhere Boss. I went around the back of the premises and got to a position where I could look down and it looked like they had a forensics team in there and those GEO guys were guarding the site. I also saw them loading a body bag into an unmarked van. Boss, what’s happened?”
“Never mind. Alex fouled up and so we need to regroup. As of now, you are my number two. Understood?” said Sonny.
Something had happened and whilst Arman didn’t know what it was, it had created an opportunity that was too good to miss.
“Yes, Boss. What do you need me to do?”
“You know how most of the business is run. I know that. Alex told me you were smart and that you would soon be ready to take on more responsibility. Well, it’s just come a bit sooner than you expected. Keep the business flowing, but there’s one more thing. I’m worried we’ve got a mole in here. Someone who is feeding stuff directly through to Sergei and that’s something I can do without, especially at the moment. Find me the mole and bring them to me. Make sure they are alive Arman, as I will want to talk to them. Okay?” said Sonny.
“Got it Boss.”
Arman knew about the mole already. He knew, because he was the mole. Sergei had brought him into this dangerous game of cat and mouse with a promise of early promotion and a threat of permanent unemployment if he didn’t. Sergei Grigoryan was not a man you said ‘No’ to.
He waited till he had left the office and was in his car before he felt calm enough to call Sergei.
“Yes.”
“Alex Krikorian is missing Boss. Sonny’s promoted me to second in command and we’ve got four other guys also missing. I don’t know what the hell is going on Boss, but Sonny looks like he’s losing it.”
“Thank you for your opinion Arman, but never, repeat never, disrespect your immediate boss, do you understand?” said Sergei.
“Sorry Boss, I was just trying…..”
“I know Arman, but just the facts will suffice thank you. What is he intending to do now?”
“I think he might be going to lie low from the police for a while. There’s rumours going around that the woman Alex kidnapped has somehow been rescued by the GEO, even before the night was out. Maybe that has something to do with our missing guys?” said Arman.
Sergei went silent, taking in what he had just been told. Kidnapped a woman? What the hell was Sonny playing at doing something like that without reference to him? The murder of the British woman and now this. He was troubled. Sonny was a trusted member of his inner council and yes, a friend. They had been through a lot together, but what on earth was he doing kidnapping people without reference to him first?
“Okay, thank you Arman. This is helpful and good luck with your new role,” said Sergei.
“Thank you Boss,” said Arman, thinking it was just as well he hadn't mentioned that he had been there at the time of the kidnap, but by then Sergei had hung up and was already ringing Sonny.
“Sergei, good to hear from you,” said Sonny.
“And you too Sonny. Just wanted a chat. Is everything all okay with you?”
“Yes, it is thanks. How about you?”
“Yes, I’m fine thanks. Things aren’t going as well as I’d like across in the States, but other than that we‘re in pretty good shape.”
“That’s good Sergei, but tell me, what’s the real reason for your call?” said Sonny.
“You were always very good at seeing through me Sonny. Look, I’m worried about you. You don’t seem yourself and you come across like you’re hiding something from me. We’ve known each other a long time and I’d like to think you would tell me anything. Anything at all Sonny, as I am sure we could sort out whatever the issue may be.”
Sonny paused and it was long enough for Sergei to tell that there was something, but Sonny wasn’t sure if he wanted to tell him.
Finally Sonny said, “Honestly Sergei, things are fine. You were right about the British woman. That was a mistake and it has brought some heat down on me that I could do without, but it is starting to go away as the police have nothing to go on.”
A half-truth thought Sergei, is always a good way of hiding the full truth. Sonny was owning up to his mistake with the MacDonald woman, but he wasn’t going to tell him anything about the kidnap.
“I’m glad that everything else is all good then my friend and there really was no need to worry about the MacDonald woman. It’s a small mistake, but nothing that can’t be rectified,” said Sergei. “Right, I’ll leave you now, so enjoy the rest of your day. Have you still got your Indian woman across there? I think you like her don’t you?”
“Yes, I do. She’s different and in a good way from other women. She’s only here another few days and then she will be going home,” said Sonny.
“Well enjoy her company whilst you can Sonny and we’ll catch up soon.”
Sonny came off the phone and immediately rang Jaz.
“Hi, what’s up?” said Jaz.
“Listen, I can’t explain, but when is your flight home?”
“It’s tomorrow evening, but why?”
“Look, I can’t explain Jaz, but try and get an earlier flight home. Those things I told you about? I might have some more problems with them, so I’d like you to get away from here and from me as soon as you can.”
“Okay,” she said slowly. “I’m sure I can get an earlier flight back to London and I can stay there an extra day if I need to,” said Jaz. “But you will have to tell me what this is all about at some stage.”
“Yes, I will, I promise,” said Sonny.
*****
Terri had diverted to Anna’s villa and dropped Tommy off to provide protection for Anna. She then left for the finca, followed by Greg and Sam and on the way Sam rang Jimmy.
“Jimmy, it’s me,” said Sam.
“You alright mate?”
“Actually, I’ve not felt as good as this for a long, long time.”
“Don’t tell me, you’ve met a tall leggy blonde, fallen in love and have decided to jack it all in and live in the paradise they call Mallorca?”
“Well, you got two out of three right mate.”
“What? I was joking! What’s been happening?” said Jimmy.
“It’s a bit of a long story and I think you’ll need to come out here with Di and the kids and then I’ll tell you both all about it.”
“She won’t be able to wait till then Sam. She’ll be talking wedding outfits, the lot.”
“She’ll have to hold off on the wedding outfits Jimmy. That was the only bit you got wrong. I have met a tall leggy blonde though.”
“Go on,” said Jimmy.
“Turns out I have a half-sister and I’ve met my biological father.”
“Bloody hell! Really? How on earth did all this happen? Did you know anything about them?”
“Co-incidence and no, I didn’t know anything about Terri and neither did my mum of course, as Terri came into the picture long after my mum’s relationship with Greg.”
“So, let me get this straight. This guy Greg is your biological dad and Terri is your half-sister through him?”
“Yes and yes and she’s Australian and he’s a former spook and oh, by the way, so is my mum. A spook I mean.”
“Listen Sam, this isn’t some sort of late April Fool is it? Half-sisters, spooks and a biological father? Come on mate, are you having me on?” said Jimmy.
“Hard to believe chum and I haven’t mentioned my mum being kidnapped and then rescued and here’s another one for you. The bit about living in paradise? I’ve decided to resign.”
“Kidnapped? What do you mean? Is she alright and what do you mean you’re going to resign?” Jimmy paused, “I’m not being funny, but have you been on some strong medication or something?”
Sam laughed.
“I said I’d tell you all about it when you guys come out. The main thing is she’s fine. A bit shaken ob
viously, but they didn’t harm her and we got her back within eight hours.”
“You got her back?” said Jimmy.
“Well, I was there alongside the SIO, DI Garcia. Greg had, how can I say this? He’d taken two of the OCG captive and had discovered some possible safe houses where they might be holding her. He then identified one that looked really promising, gave it to Lori who got her GEO guys to hit the place.”
“Lori is the SIO, not the tall leggy blonde then?”
“No, Terri is the Aussie tall leggy blonde, ex-forces and tough as nails. Lori is Spanish, a DI attached to the GEO, brunette, very good looking and has taken a shine to Greg.”
“It all sounds a bit incestuous out there mate,” laughed Jimmy.
“A lot, in fact a hell of a lot has certainly happened in the last few days. Keep the resigning thing under wraps for the moment will you? I’ll tell you more later, but for now can you do me some research on an Armenian OCG boss called Sergei Grigoryan?” said Sam. “This doesn’t need to be secret, secret Jimmy. This guy has fingers all over Europe and the States, so I think we need to know more about his outfit and what they are doing in London anyway. But for the time being I am particularly interested in what you can find out about his base. Where does he live? Where does he go? Does he have any favourite cafes or restaurants?”
“Sam,” said Jimmy, “you don’t have to tell me this, but what are you thinking of doing?”
“For your ears only,” said Sam. “We’re going to try and have a coffee with him and that’s not code for anything Jimmy. I do mean, I just want to talk with him.”
“Okay, I think,” said Jimmy, as he typed the name Grigoryan Sergei into his intel desktop.
“Right, I’ve got your man here. I’ll get on this and do a full trawl of the Euro-Intel sites and see what there is on him, but you wanted to know if we could place his base and it looks like it’s Yerevan. That’s the capital city and it seems like he takes his private jet out of Zvartnots International Airport whenever he needs to go anywhere.”
“Private jet eh? Business must be booming,” said Sam. “Jimmy, you’re a star.”
“I know,” said Jimmy, “give my love to your mum and hey Sam?”
“Yes?”
“Don’t forget the falling in love thing.”
“Stop it and get on with your job Constable,” said Sam.
“Right away, soon to be retired Detective Chief Inspector. I’ll get back to you when I’ve got more on your new Armenian friend,” said Jimmy. Sam retiring he thought. His best friend since joining the Met. He had worried about him ever since the shooting. He had never blamed him and never would. It was an operational incident and that was it, matter closed. He picked up his phone and started dialling his wife.
‘She’ll never believe all of this.’
TWENTY THREE
Rob phoned Anna at 10am. She had managed to get an hour’s rest just sitting in her chair in the living room and felt better having recharged her batteries.
“Good morning Anna, how are you?” said Rob.
She quickly filled him on what had happened. She needed him to know the threat level and where it had come from.
“I’m glad you’re alright Anna. It must have been quite an experience. Thanks for telling me. I’m happy it doesn’t change the threat towards me, but it’s good to know. Okay, so you wanted to know more about Intertech.”
Rob then went on to tell Anna that what he had found showed that there were a number of shadow companies operating this particular scam. All were being managed by the same organisation, Intertech, a privately owned business where the major shareholder was the CEO, Jasvinder Kaur or Jaz Kaur as she chose to go by. She also owned and ran another legitimate call centre operation, Direct Solutions, but she kept them entirely separate. She also had a Facebook account that provided some more detail of her interests and that included some trips to Mallorca.
“She looks like she is or has been in Palma recently according to pictures she has posted,” said Rob.
“Can we see any of these images Rob?”
“Yes, don’t worry, I have put all of this information on a file and I will send you a link to access it. The link will be open for two hours after we finish the conversation and then I will remove it.”
“Okay, I understand,” said Anna. “So where is this woman based?”
“It looks like her main office is in Mumbai, but she seems to be running at least five dodgy call centres that I can find at the moment. She’s no mug Anna. She’s Harvard educated and runs her business on very effective and efficient lines, pretty much what you’d expect from someone with a Harvard MBA. It took a little while, but I’ve tracked down some of the payments people have been making, to see where they end up. For example, Sheila MacDonald and Bill Patterson thought they were speaking to different companies, but it was actually the same call centre and although they paid their money, both by credit card incidentally, it was to different payees. The money all eventually loops back to this Kaur woman’s Intertech holding company, but she’s put together a very well protected financial network where money goes all around the place to get clean, before it eventually ends up in her main account in Mumbai. She looks like she has also been developing a strong social media profile for at least the past two years, with donations to various community projects and some high profile networking with big business and politicians. So she isn’t afraid to get her face in the news, which is great for us, but not such a great idea for her. We’ve got her house in Mumbai, where she lives most of the time and then there is a secluded villa she uses for holidays down near the Goa coast. Just by looking at the number of payments going in to a couple of the shadow accounts for one day, she is making some serious money Anna and I’ve found what look to be dividend type payments the holding company are paying direct to an account in her name and she’s personally pocketed in the region of £2 million in the last two years from these scams, not to mention what she makes from her legitimate businesses.”
“And how many vulnerable people does that add up to?” Anna hadn’t realised she had asked the question out aloud.
“Trouble is Anna, Kaur is just one of many who I and the rest of my team come across and half the time, no, I mean most of the time, the authorities can’t get near these people.”
“And I don’t know what we will be able to do either Rob, but we have a very angry and vengeful widower who wants blood,” said Anna.
“To be honest, I don’t blame him. I hate these people. Maybe not so much the ones in the call centres as I sort of get it that they are trying to do a job to put food on their family’s table, but even saying that, I watched the guys in Kaur’s call centre in Mumbai over the past few days and they were enjoying it. Enjoying making people like Bill and Sheila MacDonald part with their money and then they’re cheering when they get someone like Bill, when he pays up something like £900.”
Rob then completed his rundown on Kaur and the rest of the Intertech set up and then sent through the link with the information.
“Anna, it’s been a pleasure. I will check back in a day by text, just to confirm you understand everything that’s in the file, but after that you won’t hear from me again, so I wish you well.”
She thanked him for his help and then set about opening the link and downloading the file. She then rang Sam.
“Hi Mum, how did you get on with Rob?”
“He’s a mine of information that young man. I’ve downloaded the file he sent me and I’ll send it to you, Greg and Terri. First things first, Rob has identified a woman called Jasvinder Kaur as the CEO of the company who runs the call centres responsible for the scam. She’s primarily based in Mumbai and in the last two years, she has made around £2 million from her scam business.”
“I think we need to have a talk with this Jasvinder Kaur and see if we can’t persuade her to make some sort of restitution,” said Sam. “In the meantime Mum, how are you feeling? Are you okay?”
“Yes, I
managed to grab an hour’s sleep before the call and Tommy has just made a nice cup of tea.” She smiled as Tommy came through the living room doors with two cups of tea.
“That’s great. We’re just going back out to the finca where Tommy and Simon have been staying. We’ve got a bit of tidying up to do and then we’ll be back early this afternoon to go and meet the MacDonalds and I was thinking you would like to come to see John?”
“Yes, I would like that. He must still be in shock from losing Sheila. By the way, I’ve rung the hospital and Bill is doing okay and he should be able to come home in a day or so as well.”