Vanishing Point ijb-2

by Danielle Ramsay

  Out of the corner of his eye, Brady watched as the bartender made a call.

  All he could make out was ‘Trina’. Or was that ‘Trouble’?

  The hired muscle, no doubt paid the minimum wage to keep trouble out, made a point of readying his fists. Brady caught sight of the classic, fading bluish-black-ink tattoos of ‘Love’ and ‘Hate’ across the knuckles of each of his large hands.

  ‘Look, I’m not here to cause trouble. Alright? I need to talk to Trina. So back off, mate,’ Brady said as the hired muscle started to loom in close. Too close.

  A second later and Brady heard her voice. Despite the lurid music playing in the background, Brady would recognise her voice anywhere.

  A sense of relief flooded through his body. This was a place where he’d be lucky to get out alive if things turned nasty. His beaten-up body would be taken out the back. Shoved into the boot of a car and unceremoniously dumped with a bullet through his head into the cold, murky grey waters of the Tyne.

  ‘What the hell are you doing here, eh? Looking for sexual favours like your pal, Adamson, are you?’ scornfully demanded Trina McGuire as she strutted over in implausibly high killer heels.

  Her scorn for DI Adamson came as no surprise. Brady had heard talk that Adamson liked to exert his status as a copper over women like Trina McGuire.

  She shot Brady a look that told him he’d over-stepped the mark coming into her place of work.

  ‘Davy man, fucking put your fists down, will you?’ Trina ordered as she shook her head at the hired muscle. ‘You’ll get Ronnie pissed off if he hears you knocked out a copper. And a mate of Adamson’s at that!’

  Trina’s threat worked.

  Davy sulkily skulked off back to his Sun crossword puzzle.

  Brady couldn’t blame him.

  Trina might have only been five foot four and six stone if that, but she was dangerous. And she had one hell of a temper. Brady had been witness to it once too often when she’d come from work to pick up her street-hardened son from the holding cells at the station.

  For such a petite woman she had an amazing power to reduce a grown man to tears. Which effectively is what she used to do to her foul-mouthed, ‘couldn’t give a fuck’ son, Shane McGuire. Shane, a regular at the station, was a hard nut. He’d even landed a blow on Brady once when he’d been arresting the scrawny, sneering juvenile who had been high as a kite on amphetamines and had fought Brady and Conrad with superhuman strength due to the effect of the drug coursing through his cold, sweating body.

  Trina McGuire caught Brady’s eye. It was evident that she was unimpressed that he was there. She had the same sneer on her face that her son wore. She threw back her long glossy blonde hair as she scowled at him.

  This was Nick’s ex-girlfriend. And half of North Tyneside’s if the local rumours were to be believed. Trina had never forgiven Brady for Nick clearing off to London. But given what had been kicking off in the Ridges at the time of Nick’s youth, Brady had been relieved to see him go and not arrested, condemned to a life in and out of prison like his mates.

  Brady had always had a thing for Trina. When she was younger that was – not the woman she had become. Social determinism at its worst, he thought sadly.

  She’d been a real beauty then. Like Brady, Nick and Madley, Trina had grown up in the ugly harshness of the Ridges; a run-down housing estate which was a no-go area for police and non-residents. Infamous for the riots in 1991 when community buildings had been burnt to the ground and shops looted in protest at the deaths of two local youths killed while driving a stolen car pursued by police. Suggestions by the boys’ friends that the police had forced the vehicle off the road triggered the spark that saw the riots go up against a prolific background of social deprivation and crippling poverty. Riot police and the fire services had gone in, backed up by the police helicopter, only to be pelted by stones as a stronghold of at least 400 people held together as a community, fighting the shit lives they’d been dealt through the reign of middle- and upper-class terror meted out by Thatcher and her henchmen.

  Brady looked at Trina McGuire. She had lost that delicate, remarkable beauty that had so set her apart in the Ridges. But years later, she epitomised everything about the sorry place. She might have still had that ‘heroin chic’ beauty about her, but even with the heavy black eyeliner and mascara, it was fading fast. A poverty-stricken, desperate junkie, who didn’t have a hope in hell of getting out.

  ‘You’re bloody lucky your brother’s not still around, Jack,’ Trina warned him.

  ‘That’s the point,’ replied Brady softly. ‘He’s back.’

  ‘I told you, I’ve got nothing to say,’ hissed Trina, not wanting to bring attention to herself.

  ‘Look, the last place I want to be is here on a Saturday night hassling you, alright? But Nick told me to come,’ explained Brady.

  ‘You having a laugh or what?’ she scornfully replied.

  Brady shook his head. The look on his face deadly serious.

  ‘How do I know you’re not lying then?’ she cynically questioned.

  Brady reluctantly took the note out from his inside jacket pocket and handed it to her.

  Brady knew she instantly recognised the handwriting from the look on her face.

  She quickly composed herself and handed the note back.

  ‘I’ve got no idea what you’re talking about,’ she said. But her eyes betrayed her. She looked scared … very scared.

  Brady replaced the note in his pocket and tried not to let his imagination run away with him. He had never seen Trina McGuire fazed, let alone scared. Clearly, she knew something about Nick and realised that he must be in deep trouble to have sent Brady here.

  He suddenly caught sight of the bartender out of the corner of his eye. He was on the phone again. Observing Brady and talking quietly.

  Too quietly for Brady’s liking.

  The name ‘Ronnie’ had rung alarm bells.

  How many Ronnies were there in Wallsend who had a hand in the sex industry?

  Only one, thought Brady. It could only be Ronnie Macmillan.

  Brady turned his attention back to Trina McGuire who had obviously carefully considered the contents of the note. She didn’t look too happy with the situation.

  ‘Right, you … five minutes, but it’ll cost you!’ she ordered, hand stretched out.

  Brady knew her well enough to know that it was an act to cover herself.

  ‘Take it out your expenses! I have a job to do and bills to pay. But you pull any stunts like that sick bastard Adamson and I’ll make sure Davy takes care of you good and proper like!’

  Brady knew from Dr Amelia Jenkins that DCI Gates’ ‘golden boy’ Adamson had allegedly compromised his status as a copper on an earlier investigation by attempting to force Trina McGuire to perform a sexual act on him. He had threatened to bring her in for questioning if she didn’t follow through with his demands. Amelia, who had been assigned the same investigation, had walked in and found Adamson in a compromising position with Trina McGuire pinned against the wall. Since Adamson had been thwarted before his demands had been met, Amelia hadn’t reported the incident. She had confided in Brady, unsure of what to do about what she had witnessed. But Brady had heard enough rumours about Adamson not to have been surprised by Amelia’s disclosure.

  Brady had heard nothing more about it, and had assumed that Amelia had decided to keep quiet, ultimately realising that corruption in a male-dominated force, aligned with deep-rooted sexism, was a powerful institution to single-handedly fight. He also knew that Trina would not have substantiated Amelia’s story. Trina McGuire had her own way of getting even with creeps like Adamson; ones that didn’t involve the police.

  ‘I’m nothing like Adamson. You of all people should know that!’ Brady replied sharply.

  Trina looked at him.

  ‘You’re a copper aren’t you? All the same as far as I’m concerned,’ she scornfully replied.

  Brady didn’t bother retaliating. In
her eyes he was a traitor; always would be.

  He watched as she nervously glanced over at the bartender. He was obviously the look-out guy. Watching all the comings and goings. Anything odd, or not quite right got reported to the boss who was no doubt sitting upstairs in his office wanking over porn. Or his bank statement. Same difference, thought Brady.

  ‘Yeah, yeah. I’m good for it,’ Brady said as he took out his wallet.

  He handed over three £20 notes.

  She snatched them, counted and gestured for more.

  He gave her two more.

  ‘I expect some private time for that,’ Brady said.

  ‘Like I said, five minutes,’ repeated Trina.

  She then looked at the bartender who had just finished with the call.

  ‘Bacardi and Coke. Make it a double and he’s paying,’ Trina said as she gestured at Brady.

  Trina’s eyes darted over towards the bottom booth. Three of the men were now clapping and shouting at something the lap dancer was doing to their friend.

  ‘And one for Nicoletta. She’ll need it after they’re through with her,’ Trina commented ruefully.

  Brady was about to object but decided to keep quiet; he was just relieved that Trina hadn’t had him thrown out.

  ‘Twenty quid,’ said the bartender placing both drinks down on the bar.

  ‘How much?’ queried Brady sceptically.

  ‘You heard. Twenty quid or I call security.’

  ‘Yeah, yeah,’ answered Brady as Davy, the hired muscle shot him a look. He threw a twenty onto the bar. ‘Keep the change,’ he muttered as he picked up the drinks and walked over to the booth where Trina had sat down.

  ‘Five minutes, starting now,’ Trina said taking her drink.

  ‘Nick,’ Brady began. ‘He’s back.’

  ‘So?’

  ‘I can’t get hold of him,’ Brady answered. ‘And for some reason he’s pointed me to you.’

  She didn’t reply.

  ‘Listen, Trina, this is serious. Alright? It’s not a game!’ Brady hissed at her, keeping his voice low.

  She made a point of casually checking out her long, polished nails.

  ‘Look … I don’t know if you’ve heard but we’ve got a copper critically ill in hospital and a sixteen-year-old girl is lying sadistically murdered in the morgue.’

  ‘What’s that got to do with me?’

  ‘Everything. Because I reckon Nick’s been to see you.’

  Trina visibly flinched, losing the hard edge that she needed to survive in the underworld she inhabited.

  ‘For Christ’s sake, Trina, he’s in trouble! Understand? It’s his brother you’re talking to now, not a copper. And by the end of today I reckon I’ll be out of a job anyway.’

  She took a long, slow drink as she deliberated whether to talk.

  ‘Come on, Trina! Do you think I want to be here? You read the note. You know as well as I do that he wrote it. I need to know what it means,’ insisted Brady, trying, but failing to keep the desperation out of his voice.

  ‘Alright,’ she whispered. ‘I honestly don’t know what’s going on, Jack. Okay? All I know is he turned up here yesterday looking for a girl.’

  ‘Nick did?’ questioned Brady, stunned.

  ‘Yeah … but not the way you’re thinking,’ she said correcting him. ‘One of their girls had gone missing and they wanted her found.’

  ‘Who’s they?’ demanded Brady.

  ‘The men he works for … two brothers named Dabkunas. Marijuis and Mykolas …’ Trina paused as she looked around nervously.

  ‘How do you know their names?’ Brady questioned as he realised that the initials on Melissa Ryecroft’s body now made sense.

  If Melissa Ryecroft had been taken by these men and branded then ‘MD’ would stand for Marijuis and Mykolas Dabkunas. And Marijuis was the name of her Eastern European boyfriend.

  It all made sense now.

  ‘How the hell do you think?’ lowly hissed Trina as she shot Brady a hard look.

  She was clearly pissed off and Brady couldn’t figure it out.

  ‘Nick!’

  ‘What’s he done, Trina? What the fuck has Nick done?’

  If there was one person who was always in Nick’s camp, that was Trina. Even when he dumped her to start a fresh life in London, she wouldn’t have a word said against him.

  Brady had always wondered about Trina’s allegiance to Nick. And vice-versa. He knew that if Nick ever came up to the North East, he always made a point of visiting her. He had often wondered what the connection was between them.

  ‘Nick’s working for them, isn’t he? These men are evil, Jack. You have no idea. I wouldn’t even spit on them. They’re bringing girls like Nicoletta into the country and taking their passports from them and forcing them to work.’

  ‘What? Sex?’

  ‘Fuck me! You’re quick!’ she replied, her voice thick with scorn.

  She looked at Brady and shook her head.

  Brady was certain he could see tears welling up in her eyes.

  ‘Anyway, Nick’s caught up with them. I don’t know why … it’s not like him, you know?’

  Brady knew alright.

  ‘What’s he working as?’ he asked.

  But he already knew the answer. He just needed it confirming.

  ‘He’s working as their driver and bodyguard,’ Trina muttered reluctantly.

  She looked at him. Her eyes filled with fear.

  ‘Jack? You’ve got to stop him,’ Trina begged. ‘Talk to him. Make him see what kind of men he’s working for.’

  ‘That’s why I’m here. I knew he was caught up in some real bad shit.’

  ‘He’s not just involved with the Dabkunas brothers though. It’s bigger than that. Much bigger …’

  ‘What do you mean? Who else is involved?’

  ‘Nick said … he said he was working for a very powerful man … an ambassador …’

  Brady raised his eyebrows. ‘Come on, Trina. This is bloody Wallsend, not London!’

  ‘You think I don’t know that? Makes no difference though … The Dabkunas brothers are just part of a chain of command, Jack. From what Nick said, he answers directly to an ambassador … the Lithuanian Ambassador. As do the Dabkunas brothers.’

  Brady stared at her. He couldn’t believe what he was hearing.

  He suddenly remembered that Gates had mentioned that he was attending some fancy presentation talk at the Civic Centre tomorrow afternoon. The main speaker was the Lithuanian Ambassador, up on business from London.

  But what business?

  ‘I’m scared, Jack. From what I’ve heard these brothers own their girls and if they don’t do as they’re told, then they get punished. They’d have no qualms about putting a bullet in Nick … or worse.’

  Brady tried not to focus on what the Dabkunas brothers would do to Nick.

  ‘What do they do to their girls? How do they punish them?’ Brady asked, thinking of how Melissa Ryecroft had been murdered.

  ‘Ask Nicoletta,’ Trina said, her eyes on the booth in the corner. ‘Looks like she’s finished.’

  Brady turned and watched as she walked towards them. With each step she was trying to rebuild the self-esteem and self-worth that the four businessmen had stripped bare.

  ‘It’ll cost you though,’ warned Trina. ‘Same amount.’

  ‘Fuck me!’ muttered Brady as he took his wallet out.

  ‘Cost you double if we were to do that,’ Trina said with a wry smile.

  Brady ignored her and counted out the money.

  ‘No?’ she questioned with mock surprise, enjoying his embarrassment.

  ‘No,’ replied Brady, as he handed the cash over.

  Luckily he had had £250 on him. He’d been to the cash-point yesterday and had withdrawn £300; part of which he’d spent that night. And seemingly the rest was going on expenses today. He knew she was fleecing him. But he had no choice but to pay.

  Nicoletta quietly watched the transaction befor
e sitting down.

  Trina pushed the drink Brady had bought in front of her.

  ‘He wants to know about the Dabkunas brothers,’ Trina said.

  ‘Know nothing,’ Nicoletta replied in an Eastern European accent.

  Brady looked at her. She was young, pretty and very, very scared. He hazarded a guess that she was about eighteen, nineteen, if that.

  ‘It’s okay,’ Trina said, taking her hand. ‘He’s a friend of mine, Nicoletta. Nothing’s going to happen.’

  Brady saw her discreetly press some of the notes he’d just handed over into Nicoletta’s hand. Trina then tightly squeezed it.

  Nicoletta looked at Trina. Her big brown eyes wide with terror.

  ‘No … they do …’ she mumbled, shaking her head.

  ‘Trust me. He can help you, I promise,’ reassured Trina.

  Brady watched Trina, surprised by her gentleness.

  Nicoletta nodded. But it was clear she wasn’t convinced.

  ‘Where are you from?’ Brady asked her.

  She shot Trina a nervous look. Trina nodded for her to continue.

  The girl gestured towards the ceiling and he realised that she must live in the apartment above the club.

  ‘I work … sleep … work …’ she answered, shrugging.

  ‘Do you live with anyone else upstairs?’ asked Brady.

  ‘Ronnie Macmillan, that’s who,’ angrily interrupted Trina.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Yeah … He owns this place and half of Wallsend by all accounts,’ answered Trina. ‘And he owns Nicoletta. Bought her from the Dabkunas brothers.’

  ‘Why did they sell you?’ Brady asked, curious.

  ‘I gift,’ Nicoletta quietly explained.

  ‘A gift?’ Brady asked, incredulous.

  She nodded, making her long light brown hair fall into her face.

  ‘Why? Why would they make you a gift?’

  ‘Business … I …’ She shrugged, turning to Trina for help.

  ‘Macmillan took a liking to her and they handed her over to seal whatever deal it is they have going on,’ explained Trina.

  Nicoletta nodded.

  ‘Why don’t you go home?’ asked Brady. ‘Back to your country?’

  She looked at Brady, incredulous.

  ‘How?’ she questioned, an edge of anger to her voice. ‘No nothing … no money … nothing. They take … take everything,’ she said resignedly.