by Dan Latus
‘So who do you want to go after next?’ he asked instead.
Chapter 8
They met in a little café near the waterfront in Faro that they had used once before. Jake was there first this time. He sat and nursed a beer while he waited.
Bob arrived twenty minutes later, and shook his head when the waiter offered him a beer. He asked for coffee instead.
‘No sign you were followed from the airport, I hope?’ Jake said.
Bob shook his head. ‘I went straight to my hotel, checked in and slipped out a back door. Picked up a cab on the street.’
‘Risky. You didn’t know who was picking you up.’
‘Let’s not overdo the paranoia, son. It’s grim enough as it is. But if I see a bad guy coming this way, I’ll let you know. OK?’
Jake grinned. ‘Good to see you again, ol’ timer!’
‘And you. Where’s that fucking coffee? I’ve had nowt to drink all day.’
‘Easy, Bob. Did no-one tell you? We’re very laid-back down here in the Algarve.’
‘That’s good, very good. I’ll try to remember that. So should you, when I tell you what I know – and what I don’t know.’
There it was, Jake thought. They’d got to the nub of the meeting in no time flat.
‘It sounds bad.’
‘Oh, it is bad!’
‘So what happened? You told me Fogarty escaped and that he knew where to find me, but not much else.’
Bob sighed and looked up as the waiter returned with his coffee. Jake nodded when the waiter pointed at his near empty glass and looked at him expectantly.
Bob cleared his throat and said, ‘You’d be better off with coffee than beer, Jake. You’re going to have to keep your wits about you.’
‘I’ll be all right. Don’t you worry about me.’
‘I wish I didn’t have to. He’ll be coming for you, you know – for all of you, in fact. You do know that, don’t you?’
Jake nodded. ‘I’ve been expecting it.’
‘Sooner, rather than later, I mean.’
‘Let him come.’ Jake shrugged. ‘I’m not worried.’
‘Well, you should be – especially now.’
‘Why’s that?’
Bob shrugged and gave a little grimace. ‘More bad news, I’m afraid. I didn’t want to tell you over the phone.’
‘So tell me now.’
Jake stared hard, unblinking, knowing it was going to get worse.
Bob hesitated, as if uncertain how best to express himself. ‘Anna,’ he said with a sigh. ‘That young lass from SOCA – remember her?’
Jake’s pulse rate crept up. ‘Go on,’ he murmured, willing himself to stay calm.
‘It looks like Fogarty got to her already. At least, somebody did. She was shot dead the other night.’
Jake grimaced. ‘And you think it was him?’
‘Him, or somebody acting for him.’
Jake shut up then while he absorbed the news. It was bad. So soon, too.
‘What happened?’
‘I don’t know much.’ Bob shrugged. ‘Apparently, she went home after work in…’
‘In London?’
‘London, yes. That’s right. She’d left SOCA and moved to the NCA quite recently. Anyway, she went home from work. Two men were waiting for her in a car. They got out and called her name after she walked past. When she turned round one of them shot her. She died instantly.’
Jake grimaced. ‘There were witnesses, I take it?’
‘Two or three. Ordinary folk. Neighbours. They said the gunman just shot her. Outside her own front gate, as well. Then him and his partner got back in the car and drove away. They didn’t even wear balaclavas,’ he added, shaking his head.
Professionals, Jake thought. A professional hit, an execution. They would probably be out of the country by now. Back to Moscow, or wherever. Sicily, maybe.
‘She was a canny lass,’ Bob said wistfully. ‘She didn’t have a lot to do with it, either. It’s a damn shame.’
‘People like Fogarty don’t just scratch your car when they’re out for revenge,’ Jake pointed out.
Bob sighed, as if to say it was beyond his comprehension, despite all his policing years. Then he looked into his cup. ‘I wouldn’t mind another coffee. This cup’s a bit small. I usually have a mug.’
‘Jesus!’ Jake glared at him, irritated by the trivial comment. Then he just shook his head. ‘Get one,’ he said. After a pause, he added softly, ‘He’s not going to get away with it, you know. Fogarty, I mean.’
‘Let’s hope not.’
‘How did he get out, by the way? Anything more on that?’
‘A helicopter came over the yard during the exercise hour, apparently, and opened up with a machine gun.’
‘You’re kidding!’
Bob shook his head. ‘Opened fire – just like that. Didn’t hit anyone, mind.’
‘Surely they couldn’t land it?’
‘No. There’s wires over the yard to stop that.’
‘So what did they do – drop him a rope?’
‘No. They just shot the place up, and flew off again. It was all over in twenty or thirty seconds.’
‘A distraction?’
‘That’s right. When they did a count afterwards, Fogarty was gone.’
It wouldn’t have been easy, Jake reflected, not even with all that mayhem going on. Belmarsh was a high security prison, as secure as anywhere in the country.
‘So how did they do it?’
‘They coerced a few prison officers. Took their families hostage and told them what would happen if they didn’t get Fogarty through the security doors. Left it to them to work out how to do it.’
‘He’s good at that sort of thing.’ Jake shook his head, remembering. ‘What else did he do – send them their kids’ ears and fingers?’
‘The wives were beaten up – badly – and then they gave them photographs of their faces.’
Jake grimaced and shook his head. That would work. It nearly always did.
‘On the phone you mentioned Nicci. What about him?’
‘Aye. Nicci, and the others.’ Bob shrugged and added, ‘All of you, really. You’re all in the same boat now. Yourself, of course, you’re different to the others, but still…’
‘Different? In what way?’
‘Well, you could do something about it. None of the others can. They don’t have the capability.’
‘I’m not so sure about that,’ Jake said with a wry smile. ‘Have you warned everybody, by the way?’
Bob shook his head. ‘I don’t even know where they are, not now.’
‘For chrissake! They’re in witness protection. I thought you were supposed to keep tabs on them?’
‘That’s right. We are.’ Bob shrugged. ‘We tried to keep an eye on them. It started off OK. Then they slipped off the radar.’
Jake wondered what that meant. He wasn’t impressed.
‘What did they do – go back to their original identities?’
‘Some did.’
‘Stupid buggers!’
‘It’s hard, you know. Not everyone can handle a lifetime of exile from friends, family and the places they know. And getting used to a name that’s not yours can be a problem, as well.’
‘Better than being dead!’
‘Yeah.’
Despite his reaction, Jake could understand all that. It was one reason why he had declined the offer of witness protection himself, although what he’d opted for wasn’t a lot different in practice. Looking after himself the way he had been doing amounted to a life in exile, even if he was in charge of it himself.
‘We do our best for them,’ Bob resumed, ‘but... Well, there it is. We are where we are. What I want you to do now, Jake, is find them. Find the others, and warn them. Give them a chance to get clear.’
‘Me?’ Jake chuckled. ‘Why me?’
‘Because I think you can do it. That’s why.’
Jake shook his head. ‘No way! I’m not
doing it. I’ve got enough to do looking after myself.’
‘Oh, I think you will. Otherwise, you’re not the man I’ve always thought you were.’
Jake swore and grumbled for a minute or two more. Bob waited patiently.
‘What about your lot? The cops – or the security services, for that matter? What are they going to do?’
‘The security services have got their hands full with today’s problems. And we in the police are not up to it. It’s as simple as that. By the time we get organized, and find out from the lawyers what we’re allowed to do these days, you’ll probably all be dead. We’ll be left to organize press conferences, express our condolences to the families and ship the bodies home.’
‘So we’re on our own,’ Jake said bitterly. ‘All the help you got from us for that trial, and then when the wheels come off we’re on our own?’
‘I just wish I could tell you different, son.’
Jake knew that would be right. Bob wouldn’t be proud of the position he found himself in. But he was a realist. He was here because he felt something could be done, and should be done. There were lives that could be saved.
Experimentally, he manoeuvred his half-full glass into line with the empty one and Bob’s coffee cup. It didn’t look right. The line was top-heavy at one end. He fiddled a bit more, but he knew it was hopeless. It couldn’t be done, however much he wanted it to be done. But he had to keep on trying.
He looked up at Bob and with a weary sigh said, ‘So what do you want me to do?’
Chapter 9
When Bob announced that he’d had nothing to eat all day they moved on to a little restaurant Jake knew.
‘Nothing all day?’ Jake said. ‘What? You were flying cargo class?’
Bob scowled. ‘They don’t do proper meals any more, most airlines. It’s got like the railways.’
‘Nothing to eat?’
‘Just bits and pieces, toasties and things, stuff that looks better in the photos than on your plate. Well, you don’t get a plate any more, either. It’s just wrapped up in cellophane and cardboard.’
‘And there was me,’ Jake said, ‘thinking motorway service areas are the pits.’
Bob shook his head. ‘Not at all. You can get hot meals there, proper meals.’
‘Come on, old timer!’ Jake said, grinning. ‘Let’s find a restaurant, and get some decent food into you.’
But it didn’t get a lot better in the restaurant Jake chose, or with the meal he ordered in Portuguese for them both.
‘Sardines?’ Bob said, when the meal came.
‘Yeah. They’re a local specialty.’
‘Sardines,’ Bob said again, staring at his plate.
‘It’s a healthy meal. Try it.’
‘Healthy? If you say so,’ Bob said with resignation.
They started eating. Jake tried to recall where they had got to in their discussion.
Then something that had been bothering him in the background came to the fore of his mind.
‘You haven’t just found out, have you, Bob?’
‘Found out what?’
‘About the others vanishing. You’ve known for a while, haven’t you?’
‘A little while, yes.’
‘What happened?’
Bob sighed and put down his knife and fork. ‘About the leak, you mean?’
Jake nodded. ‘The leak, and the chronology.’
‘What you have to understand, Jake, is that until a couple of years ago everything to do with witness protection was in the hands of the country’s individual police services. That’s how it was when all this started. So far as the Northumbria Police Service was concerned, it was down to me to see that these people were looked after. It was my responsibility. No-one else’s.
‘Then the government went and created the National Crime Agency, and they made it responsible for the national coordination of witness protection. Now the NCA may turn out to be a good thing eventually – I don’t deny it – but giving them control of witness protection has increased the possibilities of leakage. More people are in the know. It’s as simple as that.’
Jake mulled it over for a moment. ‘And the information is no doubt all on paperless files somewhere?’
‘On computers? Yes, of course it is.’
Jake sighed. ‘And given that a teenage anorak can hack into the American missile launch codes...’
‘I know, I know! Exactly.’
‘And that’s progress?’
‘So they say.’
‘Marvellous, bloody marvellous!’
Bob nodded and looked grim-faced. ‘Face it, Jake. We may never know how, where or when the leak occurred. And all we know right now is that the files were illegally accessed.’
‘So – let me guess – you decided to warn Nicci and the others that this had happened. They listened to you, and then they each decided they would rather look after their own security in future? Is that how it went?’
‘Pretty well. One by one, they dropped out of sight and disappeared.’
‘Can’t say I blame them.’
‘No. Neither can I.’ Bob sighed. ‘It gives us a problem, though. We’re still charged with protecting them.’
‘Mm.’
‘You were lucky,’ Bob reflected. ‘Lucky or well advised.’
‘You think?’
‘Well, you declined the offer of witness protection, didn’t you?’
‘I didn’t see any need for it. I wasn’t involved for very long, and I didn’t get in very deep anyway. I doubted Fogarty even knew I existed.’
‘Oh, he knows all right! And he’ll have been looking for you. But at least nobody could leak your whereabouts to him. You weren’t on file. So nobody knew.’
‘Except you.’
‘Except me. And nobody has offered me money yet for the information,’ Bob added with a grin.
Jake smiled. He trusted Bob with his life. He’d done that already.
‘I don’t feel lucky,’ he said with feeling. ‘I could have avoided all this if I’d been sensible, and said no to you in the first place.’
‘We could all say that. That’s the road not travelled, isn’t it?’
‘Yeah.’
‘It doesn’t matter much now anyway, Jake. Somehow Fogarty found out. And we’ve heard that he knows you’re out here in Portugal.’
‘From informants? That how you’ve heard?’
‘Yeah.’
‘It’s amazing you’ve got any informants left. What’s the matter with them? Are they all daft?’
‘Poor or greedy, mostly. They do it for the money, the same reason most of us do things.’
‘You’re just full of insights into human nature, Bob. You’re wasted in your job.’
‘Aye. You’re right.’
‘OK,’ Jake said, trying to pull things together. ‘Let’s go through the cast, and see what you know. You mentioned Nicci. Where’s he, for a start?’
‘Nikos Antonakis. Initially, he disappeared into the Greek community in London. We knew where he was for a time. Then he just vanished.’
‘You were paying him, presumably?’
‘We were, and we are still. But the account we pay into hasn’t been accessed for a while.’
‘Maybe he’s dead?’
Bob shook his head. ‘We don’t think so. His body would have been found. Fogarty would have wanted his body to be found. No, he’s gone underground – in the nicest possible way.’
Might be better to leave him there, Jake thought. In the circumstances. Safer, anyway. Nicci was good. As well as being a nice enough guy, even if he was a crook, he was clever financially. He would have worked something out for himself. He certainly knew what to expect if Fogarty caught up with him. He would do anything to avoid that.
He sighed and said, ‘Nicci could be anywhere.’
‘Anywhere,’ Bob agreed. ‘He could. You’re right. But my guess is he’s gone home.’
‘Home? Greece, you mean?’
Bob nod
ded. ‘Crete, actually, where he came from as a boy with his parents. The family will have stayed in touch with the old country, and Nicci will no doubt have been back there many times, visiting.’
‘Have you looked there for him?’
Bob shook his head. ‘Not really. We’ve made inquiries, but nothing has come of them yet.’
‘If you can’t locate him, maybe Fogarty won’t be able to, either.’
‘It doesn’t work like that, though, does it? Fogarty will buy or torture the information out of somebody. There could be a trail of bodies leading all the way to Nicci.’
Jake grimaced. True enough. Fogarty, he thought, shaking his head again.
‘Then there’s Walter Penrose,’ Bob said. ‘He’s somewhere in Yorkshire, I believe. Leeds, probably.’
‘Has he gone home, as well?’
‘Near enough.’
‘Jack Gregory?’
‘No idea. The last I heard of him, he was in the north of Scotland somewhere.’
Jake sighed and pushed his plate away. ‘You’re not giving me very much, Bob. What the hell do you expect me to do?’
‘Find ’em,’ Bob said with a steely look. ‘Do what you used to be good at. Intelligence, wasn’t it? Spying?’
‘A long time ago,’ Jake said with a sigh. He thought about it, frowned and added, ‘There was another woman involved, as well as Anna, wasn’t there? I never met her, but I knew she was around. I heard her mentioned.’
Bob nodded. ‘That was Petra Voyshenko. Russian, I believe. She wasn’t with us, though.’
‘She was on the other side? With Fogarty, you mean?’
‘Something like that.’
‘So where is she now? Back in Moscow?’
‘Probably.’
‘What about Freddie?’
‘Still in London, as far as we know. Maybe you should start with him.’
‘Maybe I should.’
They talked some more, without getting a lot further. Jake absorbed the scant extra information Bob handed over, and made a few notes. But it didn’t amount to much, and it wasn’t a hell of a lot to work with. He was going to have to do most of the spadework himself.
Frankly, he felt like simply disappearing, and letting them all get on with it. That was still an option for him. Why should it be down to him to find and warn the others? They hadn’t been friends, or even colleagues, for long. Some of them, like Nicci, were career criminals anyway. Why the hell was Bob tasking him with finding them?
