by L M Krier
‘Neither, thank you. I’m going running afterwards and I prefer to do that on an empty stomach.’
If anything, it was even noisier than their last meeting. Gina was having to lean closer to hear Ted, whose voice was quiet.
‘I’m just waiting for final confirmation of the location,’ Ted told her.
He’d spoken to Ian by phone on his drive up to Manchester. He’d explained to him his team’s insistence on him having back-up not too far away just in case.
The Drugs officer was resistant at first, not wanting anything which anyone could interpret as a police presence to blow his carefully created cover. It was only when Ted assured him that Virgil was big, black, in a flashy black motor, and on his own admission, looked like most people’s idea of a pimp, that he relaxed enough to give the green light.
He gave Ted a rough location to start from, so he could at least ensure that Virgil and Rob were not all that far away, and promised to confirm it nearer the time.
‘Now, you wanted eye-popping, sweetie,’ Gina told him, slipping straight back into her role and lifting the lid of her laptop, like a magician about to reveal the secrets of the locked trunk. ‘This will hopefully blow your mind.’
Ted looked at the screen. She was good. If he’d really been looking for an advertising campaign, and had wanted bold colours and a strong message, her work would have fit the bill perfectly.
He realised he wasn’t sure if he was meant to accept it or not, or how their scenario was meant to unfold from here. He’d have to wing it.
‘That’s more like it. I’m happy to sign off on that. Have your people contact my people.’
He saw the fleeting amusement on Gina’s face at his improvisation and hoped he’d not gone over the top. Not that it mattered much. Most people around them were reduced to shouting at one another to make themselves heard over all the talk and the background music.
‘Too much?’ he asked her.
‘Perfect! You must have watched a lot of Ab Fab.
‘Now, an update of what I’ve found for you so far about Data. I’m afraid the answer is still not a lot. In fact, there’s now allegedly a new young man doing the clubs and selling the very good stuff. No one’s seen Data for a few days.
‘Except that, if I were you, I wouldn’t take that as gospel. I’m hearing that Data Mark II is young, slim, very good looking, well-spoken, brown-skinned, possibly mixed race.’
‘So you’re thinking it could simply be Data himself with a bit of a makeover?’
‘Well, I know it’s not something you’re probably familiar with, but I wonder just how much notice anyone takes of their dealer. Change of hairstyle, different clothes, I wonder if anyone would seriously notice if it was actually the same person. It could simply be a big and bold bluff.
‘I’ve been asking in particular about the porn stuff, as that seems to be Data’s speciality. I’ve been told there’s been a temporary disruption in supply, but it’s hopefully going to be sorted soon. So far, not much to help you.’
‘Does any of it go on in here?’ Ted asked her, glancing round.
‘Oh, heavens no. This place is strictly legit. It’s too obvious. It’s where initial contacts are made, but nothing ever changes hands in here. Not even in the loos. That’s the unwritten law.’
‘Speaking of hiding in plain sight,’ Ted began, not wanting to delay her unnecessarily and compromise her cover, so only briefly filling her in about the latest theory on the Big Man.
‘Interesting, and plausible. I’ll try asking around again but phrasing my questions differently. Now I’m going to have to throw you out once more before it looks suspicious.’
As they exchanged air kisses once more, she said quietly into his ear, ‘Good luck with Ian.’
Ted had already run two laps of the park, passing Ian on both occasions, before the undercover officer made any contact. He was clearly being careful, which Ted respected. Despite the late evening hour, there were still a few people passing through the park who looked to be there for things other than trying to score drugs.
Two older people, with a large golden retriever on an extending lead, were walking towards them as Ian unfolded his long, lanky frame from the bench where he’d been sitting and addressed Ted.
‘You got a fag, mate? Or the price of some?’
Ted decided to give his acting skills another go, for the benefit of the couple.
‘Why don’t you get yourself a job, then you could buy your own?’
The man and woman nodded agreement and tutted, going on their way. Ted heard the man’s parting shot of, ‘Probably getting benefits and spending them all on drugs.’
‘I don’t smoke,’ Ted told him, still playing the role in case they were being watched. ‘Runners don’t. But you’re in luck. I confiscated my dad’s before I came out. I keep telling him he’s smoking himself to death, and he can’t get out by himself to get more.’
Ian gave him an appreciative grin for his performance. Ted took a lighter and cigarettes out of his pocket and held them out to him.
‘I’ll just take one, if you can light it for me, then put them all back in your pocket. It would look wrong if I suddenly had fags to flash around.’
He took a cigarette from the packet with a hand which shook, then had to bend down to cup both hands around the lighter Ted held for him.
‘Is it going to look strange, us standing talking?’ Ted asked him.
‘Not really. If anyone else comes near, we can start an argument about social injustice. Or you can try to persuade me that if I only went clean and got god, my life would be transformed.
‘Is your back-up in place?’
‘They are. Are you expecting trouble?’
‘No reason to. But the problem with drugs and users is they tend to be unpredictable. Things can kick off at any moment for no real reason. It’s quiet enough just now, but you can never tell how the night will end up.’
‘Have you found anything out?’
‘Yes and no.’ Ian paused to take a long drag on his cigarette, which produced a few coughs, before he continued. ‘Your Big Man is definitely new on the patch. We knew that by the quality of the stuff he’s supplying. He’s running the risk of turf wars with some of the existing dealers. But the word on the street is that he’s well hidden and well protected by some seriously hard types.’
‘We now think the Big Man might actually be our person of short stature. We’ve been thinking of them as two people, but that might be a red herring. There’s a chance that his hard types could come from somewhere like Bosnia, Serbia. South Eastern Europe. But that’s just a theory at the moment, based on something someone said to a dog.’
Ian smiled at that. ‘That’s an interesting method of detection, Ted. One I’ve not come across before. But you could be on to something there. Did you know that Albania is a bit of a mover and shaker on the international drugs scene? And they’ve been closing in big time on the UK market recently. Geography’s not my strong point, but I think they’re all in that sort of area.’
He was suddenly wary. His peripheral vision had caught sight of three young males walking down the path towards them. Two blacks, one Asian.
Ian spoke again, raising his voice.
‘Look, mate, you gave me a fag and that’s great. It doesn’t give you the fucking right to tell me how I should live my life. You’ve got no idea about me ...’
‘I know there are jobs out there, if you’d get off your arse and go and look for them, instead of hanging round in a park begging for a smoke,’ Ted countered, his voice louder than it usually was, trying to hit the right note of self-righteous hectoring.
Ian started to poke him in the chest as he ranted on, ‘You ever been homeless, mate? Ever tried to get yourself a job when you’ve no address? No bank account for your pay?’
The young men had drawn level with them now and were laughing.
‘You tell ’im, bro. You all right, Ian? Need a hand telling him his fortune?’ one of
them asked.
‘Nar, mate, you’re all right, I got this.’
They went on their way, still laughing.
‘Nice one, Ted. Now, where were we?’
‘Albania, I think. By way of Bosnia.’
‘The pieces are starting to fit together. It’s getting harder to get drugs into the country directly from source, so some of it is tending to come in from Eastern Europe.
‘Where your dwarf comes from, or where he fits into any of this, I don’t yet know. But having Bosnian or Serb protectors makes sense, and it gives me another direction to look in.
‘Now you’d better piss off before it looks too suspicious, us talking too long. For one thing, my young friends who just went past will be looking to score and they won’t risk it if they see a face they don’t know.’
‘You supply them?’
Ian smiled at him and tapped his nose. ‘There are things about the kind of work I do that it’s best decent people like you don’t know about, Ted.’
Trev had clearly been in the house at some point. The cats’ dishes had been topped up, the litter trays cleaned. Plus there was a tell-tale trail of dirty clothing in the bedroom, which hadn’t made it to the laundry basket.
Ted was hungry by the time he got back, though not in the mood to cook anything. He put a ready meal in the microwave while he gathered up Trev’s clothes and some of his own to put a wash on.
He almost took his phone out to at least text Trev, to make sure he was all right, but then decided against it. If he’d gone out after karate and was planning to stay out, he’d probably be with his friend Mark. If there was no news by tomorrow, Ted would give Mark a call.
Otherwise, he was pinning all his hopes on his plans for Sunday helping to heal what was clearly a serious rift in their relationship.
Chapter Twenty-eight
‘Today I’d like your help. I need to see a man about a dog.’
Ted was standing at the front of the room with Kevin Turner, having once more asked if he could attend his briefing of the officers coming on shift. Some of Ted’s team were with him, to save repeating everything.
He waited until Kevin had finished his piece before he spoke to them.
A ripple of amusement ran round the room at the DCI’s attempt at humour. Ted was generally well liked and respected by Uniform officers because he acknowledged the work they did and never forgot his own time as one of them.
‘We all like you well enough, guv,’ one of the older sergeants told him, ‘but probably not enough to take you to the little boys’ room.’
Ted wasn’t keen on guv. It’s why his team called him boss. But down here, he was on Uniform territory and quite happy to abide by their rules, their traditions.
‘The dog in question is a Malinois. Belgian Shepherd. I think,’ he went on, once the amusement had abated. ‘The man is a possible witness to both our murder at the flats and the disappearance of a key witness we’ve been trying to find. The young man we so far know only as Data.
‘I saw him in the park when we went to arrest the remaining members of the cuckoo gang last Sunday. DC Vine had also seen him near to the flats when we first got the shout about a body. Two weeks ago. The connection between the two sightings has only just been made and that is entirely my fault, for which I apologise.
Another reason Ted was popular. He owned up to his own errors instead of trying to blame anyone else.
‘We really need to speak to that man. As a matter of some urgency.’
‘Why am I sensing a but?’ Kevin Turner asked him.
‘There is a but. The dog is possibly nasty. It went for me when I was running past it. Now, most people know I’m not good with dogs, especially big ones, so it may just have smelled my fear and reacted to it. But the second point is the man himself. Both Jezza and I agree that he has the look of someone who knows how to handle himself. Ex-Forces, ex-Police, perhaps Specials. Something like that, is what struck both of us about him. About the way he carried himself, and the way he handled the dog.’
‘So are we looking at making an arrest or simply issuing a polite invitation to come in for questioning?’ Kevin asked.
‘Neither, please. This is strictly a spot and report request. Do not approach. We’re likely to have to jump through all sorts of risk assessment hoops on this one.’
‘Are you expecting him to be armed?’
‘It’s quite possible. Even if he’s not, we all need to remember that Kane Lomax was killed not by the torture he endured but by having his neck cleanly and professionally snapped. By someone who knew exactly what they were doing. Another reason I suspect special forces training.
‘Added to that, I have a gut feeling that the dog is trained to attack on command. So unless any of you knows the Serbian for sit and stay, because the man appears to speak something like that to it, it’s definitely keep clear and report in only, please.’
‘Firearms, then?’ Kevin asked.
‘I’d prefer to do it with Tasers and minimum attention if we can. I’ve spoken to someone in the dog section. Apparently we can safely Taser the dog, as well as the man. I was worried that might be too much for it and kill it. I don’t want that kind of bad PR. You know what the public are like about animals getting killed.’
‘They don’t care if any of us are, though,’ one of the older officers grumbled. Ted ignored him and carried on.
‘If any of you happen to see them anywhere,’ he repeated the description of the man and gave a rough one of the dog, ‘call it in immediately. Observe and don’t approach until we get there.
‘Inspector Turner, we’ll need at least two Taser-trained officers, when we go in, please. One for the man, the other to concentrate on the dog. We’ll need both of them, man and dog, taking down fast, before we can judge it safe to approach. I’ll get someone from the Dog Section to attend. Even when the dog is down and hopefully out of it, we’ll need it making safe. They have electric shields and catching poles to deal with that sort of situation. Then they can take it away and hold it safely until we’ve talked to the man.
‘Any questions, anyone?’
‘Guv, do we know if this bloke speaks any English or just Serbian, or whatever?’ one of the Uniform officers asked. ‘Only it could all get a bit nasty if we’re just politely asking for a chat and he doesn’t understand. It could kick off in a big way because of lack of communication.’
‘Yeah, and what does the dog speak? Is it only Serbian, or whatever they speak in Belgium as well?’ another asked.
There was always some humour in these shift briefings, no matter how serious the situation.
‘French and Flemish,’ Jezza supplied helpfully.
Ted would have pulled his team up at this point. But these were Kevin’s officers. He left it to him.
‘All right, you bunch of comedians. If you don’t want me to resort to speaking some Anglo-Saxon, just take on board what the DCI has told us. It’s clear enough. If you see this Man with Dog of his, do not approach. Do not even speak. Call it in and keep obs, without putting yourself in danger, until back-up arrives.’
‘Any idea where he may turn up next, guv?’ one of the sergeants asked him.
‘None at all, at the moment. Sorry,’ Ted told her candidly. ‘As I said, he was spotted at the flat, which suggests he was aware of where the cuckoos were staying, or possibly where they'd stashed stuff. He must have known they were no longer able to gain access because sales had dried up.
‘We know from Zofia – or Ronnie, as most of you will know her – about the meeting places in parks, so they were probably keeping those under observation. It’s highly probable Kane would have told them everything under torture. It’s likely they’ve realised by now that we have everyone except Data, so it’s guesswork where they’ll be watching next.
‘And if they have got Data, that will largely depend on what he’s told them, I imagine.’
‘Boss, what about the lock-up?’
Sal Ahmed was still with them, de
spite Jezza’s return. Ted had managed to negotiate with Fraud to keep him a few days longer as he’d been doing invaluable work for them on Abigail’s finances. Steve might have got there in the end, but Sal could do it in a fraction of the time, so it represented a big saving.
‘That’s worth a shot, Sal,’ Ted told him. ‘Kane will have told them about it, no doubt. They may think it’s worth keeping an eye on, just in case any of the others turn up there trying to get their hands on the stuff inside. They might even watch to see if it’s safe to take Data back there to recover things. Assuming they have got him.
‘You’ve made contact there already, so give them a ring. You’ve already asked them to report any suspicious people hanging around, but make sure they also let us know immediately if they see our Man with Dog anywhere nearby. A random dog-walker might not immediately attract their attention. Just make sure they understand not to approach them, at any cost.’
‘Same goes for all of you. Stay away from them until they’re out of action, even if you do come across them anywhere. And never mind worrying about the dog. If any of you messes this one up by not following instructions, I might need Tasering and muzzling myself. We can’t afford to screw up because I’m guessing that if we blow our first chance, we’re unlikely to get a second one,’ Kevin Turner warned them all.
‘So it’s a bit of a waiting game. Uniform are keeping an eye out for our man, and whenever any of my team are out and about, they’re doing the same. Kevin’s sorting two Taser officers on standby for us and I’ve got the Dog Section ready to take over with the dog at fairly short notice.’
Ted was in the Ice Queen’s office, summing up the plans. They were on a conference call with Jim Baker, in his own office.
‘And you’re going to be coordinating all this from the nick, aren’t you?’ Big Jim asked him pointedly.
‘Well, no, I was going to be there in person. Only Jezza and I have seen the man so far and she’s on desk duties. So I felt I ought to go out if we get a potential sighting to confirm it’s the right person, before we start Tasering innocent men walking their dogs.’