Three (Detective Alec Ramsay Series Book 7)

by Conrad Jones

  “Debatable,” Stirling grunted. Toni looked at him and figured that at least two cattle had donated their hides to make his jacket. “Most of the accusations in your book were proved to be questionable at best and downright untrue in most cases.”

  “I don’t know where you get that from, Sergeant. When was anything disproved?” Toni frowned and blushed with anger. She could see the distaste in his eyes. “That’s news to me that anything was disproved.”

  “I don’t care about your book, Miss Barrat and neither does Sergeant Stirling.” Annie glared at him. “Does he, Sergeant?”

  Stirling made to say something but changed his mind. He shook his head and smiled coldly. “It has no bearing on this investigation, Guv.”

  “Good. Can we get back to my question?” The DI shot Stirling a warning glance. “Your profession doesn’t concern me at this stage but the reason that you went to that mill will give us a starting point.” She paused. “Let’s start again shall we?” Annie half smiled. “What were you doing at that mill?”

  “I was following up on a lead. I didn’t expect things to go so far and I certainly didn’t ask for what happened.”

  “We’re not sure exactly what did happen. That’s why we’re here to try and work it out.”

  Toni held her palms towards the ceiling and blew air from her cheeks. “Where do I begin?”

  “At the point where you received information that a crime was going to take place at that mill would be good,” Annie said calmly.

  Toni shook her head. “Let’s not go there shall we?” she said thin lipped. “My sources are confidential and that is that.” She looked both detectives in the eye trying her best to be assertive.

  Annie sat back in her chair. She couldn’t see any point in pursuing further for now. Antonia Barrat wasn’t going to crack. “Okay, just run me through what happened.”

  Toni relaxed inwardly as the focus shifted. “We were observing events at the mill when three men walked into the warehouse. They went to the cellar, which is flooded. I heard an engine and a brief exchange of words, which involved them talking about three kilos of ‘zombie’ and that they had twelve women.” She paused to correct herself. “The Londoner said that they had lost three because the balloons had burst. I presumed he meant that they were drug mules and three women had died.” She looked at the DI for a response before carrying on. “Then a group of women were herded out of the door. They were all black. It was horrific.” Her voice broke for a second and she took a deep breath to compose herself. “All I could think about was the news coverage from Italy and Greece, all those poor Syrians drowning in the Med, desperate to get to Europe.” She wiped a tear away. “And the shambles at Calais, it breaks my heart. They are so desperate to get here aren’t they?” The detectives nodded in agreement. “They would swallow anything to get passage here, wouldn’t they?” Toni took a deep breath before carrying on. “Mike tried to find a better vantage point. I tried to stop him but I daren’t make a sound. They were only yards away.” Her voice cracked with emotion again. “He was gone in a second. I think he tried to hide on some stairs but they gave way and he fell.”

  “You heard him fall?”

  “Yes,” Toni flinched visibly as she recalled the memory. “I heard wood splintering, then a thud. The next thing they were stood over him. They found his camera, used a Taser on him and then dragged him out.”

  “You can’t describe the men?”

  “It was too dark,” Toni frowned. “I heard them. One of them sounded Russian. The man in the rib was a Londoner.”

  “And the girls?”

  “They didn’t speak, all black.”

  “What is Mike’s full name?” Annie said reading part of her statement.

  “I don’t know for sure,” Toni said embarrassed.

  “Don’t know or won’t say?”

  “I genuinely don’t know,” Toni stressed. “Don’t you think that I would tell you?”

  “I’m not sure that you would.” The DI raised her eyebrows in surprise. “So, you went to witness a crime taking place in a derelict mill in a particularly rundown area of the city with a man called ‘Mike’, but you don’t know his second name or what you were going to witness?”

  “I don’t know his real second name. He uses Mike James when he’s introduced but I did a little digging and it’s an alias. He’s an investigative reporter,” Toni tried to explain. “He posts his articles online as ‘Mikroscope’. He has a volume of credible work. Sometimes we need to keep our identity secret and I had to respect that.”

  “You must have researched him in detail,” Stirling said, his eyebrows raised.

  “Of course, that’s how I knew James was a false identity,” Toni said impatiently. “I ran checks on several of his articles. The IP addresses were all over the place, Paris, Riga, Istanbul, Marrakesh. He writes some provocative stuff, never worried about naming names. He had covered his track well. He was a ghost.”

  “Okay, maybe we can look into that in a bit more detail,” Stirling shrugged. “How did he get there?”

  “By car I presume.”

  “Where is his car?” He tilted his head as he spoke. “We can trace who he is through his vehicle.”

  “I don’t know where he parked.”

  “You arranged to travel independently and meet at the mill?”

  Toni nodded her head. “We do that unless both journalists are from the same stable. It makes it difficult to follow us that way.”

  “I really wouldn’t be so sure of that,” Annie said.

  “Why not?”

  “Because the first rule of surveillance is not to be seen doing it.”

  Toni blushed again. She was under no illusions as to how naive she sounded. “We arranged to travel separately and meet at the mill.” She felt the need to defend their actions. “We have done this type of surveillance before, Sergeant,” she protested.

  “I think you have relied more on luck than judgement so far.”

  Toni ignored the dig and continued. “We agreed to use my camera and to leave our mobile phones in our vehicles so that they couldn’t scan them,” she added proudly.

  “Scan them?” Annie said to Stirling. He nodded as if he was impressed.

  “Yes,” Toni regained some composure. “They can scan buildings for electronic devices you know?”

  “They can?”

  “Yes,” Toni quipped. “And you know that they can. Trying to belittle me isn’t going to help to find Mike.”

  “Yes, we do know that.” Stirling paused to think. “Do you have his mobile number?”

  “Yes, but I’m sure it’s a burner phone,” Toni bit her bottom lip nervously. “I have an email address too.”

  “We’ll need them both,” the DI said. She leaned forward and touched Toni’s wrist. “Your friend Mike is missing and in grave danger and we need to know who he is but we’re struggling. Unless we get lucky with CCTV then we’re stuffed. You do understand that, don’t you?”

  “Of course I do,” Toni said quietly. A sharp pang of guilt shot through her.

  “Why did he agree to go with you?”

  “We were working on similar stories.” Toni stretched the truth. “And I don’t like the dark. I wanted some company.”

  The DI frowned. “I’m curious. What did he expect to gain from going?”

  Toni looked at her wellingtons and thought about her next words carefully. “We met online on an information sharing website. I had posted an article about the Met’s HTT,” she paused to explain. “He was very interested because he was familiar with the area and some of the detectives involved. He had written about their HTT too,” Toni stopped and looked at the detectives. “You know that HTT is their Human Trafficking Team.”

  “We know what it is,” Stirling grinned sarcastically. “Pretend that we know what we’re doing for a moment and carry on.” Toni blushed again. The big sergeant looked like he had been hit in the nose with a shovel but he had intelligence in his eyes. She hadn
’t meant to insult either detective it was just that her nerves were getting the better of her.

  “Sorry,” Toni half smiled. “I didn’t mean to imply...”

  “That we’re thick?” Stirling grunted.

  “Yes. I’m very sorry.”

  He smiled and Toni relaxed a little. “It’s important that you tell us everything. That’s all that matters.”

  Toni swallowed hard and steepled her fingers. She wasn’t sure where to begin, or how much she could tell them without crossing the line. Mike had been adamant that he was being tailed, hence his caution. “He said that he had worked on some trafficking cases down south and that he was positive that the gangs in London had links with Liverpool. You know, because of the port. They sometimes use containers on cargo ships for smuggling.” The detectives exchanged glances again. The DI rolled her eyes skyward and puffed out her cheeks. “Sorry, I’m stating the obvious again. I’m nervous. He had a southern accent. I don’t know if he lives down south but he was certainly from there.”

  “It isn’t much to go on.” Stirling said flatly. “Can you think of anything that could help us to identify him?”

  “What about the blood on the floor?” Toni said excitedly. “They kicked him.” She looked from one to the other. “He spat blood onto the floor.”

  “There’s blood on the floor of the mill?” Stirling said taking his mobile from his leather jacket. He looked like he was going to make a call. Toni nodded enthusiastically.

  “Yes,” Toni nodded again.

  “We should be testing that, shouldn’t we?” he said to the DI with a quizzical expression on his face.

  “You think so?” The DI frowned. She turned towards Toni and shrugged. “We didn’t think of that.”

  Toni realised what was going on. “You’re taking the piss.”

  “Our forensic team are working on it,” the DI said flatly. “But it is way too early to get any results from it. Do you remember what my sergeant said about pretending that we know what we’re doing?”

  “Yes and I know that you know what you’re doing. And so do I,” Toni insisted.

  “We wouldn’t be sitting here now if you had done your homework.”

  “We didn’t realise that there would be no exits at the back until we got in there. They must have sealed them up or something. And if we had known that they would use the fact that the cellar was flooded, then we would have picked a better hiding place and none of this would have happened.” She tried to sound composed but failed miserably. “I know how this appears but I am not stupid.”

  “At this moment in time, Miss Barrat, that’s debatable,” the DI smiled coldly.

  “I beg your pardon?” Toni said offended. She flushed red and felt her temper fraying. “Are you suggesting that I am stupid, Inspector?”

  “The windows and exits at the rear of the mill were not sealed,” the DI sat forward as she spoke. “There were no windows or doors. It was a security design used at most big ports. The mill owners of the day had them built that way to stop pilfering.” She raised her eyebrows to emphasise her point. “The only windows and entrances were on the front elevation of the warehouse so that tobacco couldn’t be thrown out of the rear of the building to friends and family below. Tobacco was very valuable commodity back then.” Annie paused to let the information sink in. “And your ‘flooded cellar’ is not a cellar.” Toni looked at her Wellington boots and cringed inside. How could she have been so stupid? If the detectives doubted her intelligence then who could blame them? “It is actually an artery of the canal system, which links directly to the port. The mills were built above them. That’s how their goods arrived.”

  “On barges, through the flooded cellar,” Stirling cocked his head as he spoke. “Which isn’t a cellar and isn’t flooded...”

  “Now, I know that you’re not a stupid woman but on this occasion you didn’t do any research at all, did you?” The DI eyed Toni with a knowing look, “Any journalist worth her salt could have discovered what I’ve just told you about the mill on the internet in five minutes, which tells me that you received your ‘tip’ shortly before you went to the mill, leaving you no time to prepare.”

  Toni shuffled uncomfortably in her chair. She folded her arms and nodded slowly. “Yes, you’re right. I shouldn’t have rushed in,” Toni said with a sigh. “It is my fault that we went there. Sorry.” She blew air from her lips. “If I’m coming over as a bit of an arse it’s because I feel sick with guilt; I apologise but I’m really trying to help.”

  “We need you to trust in the fact that we know what we’re doing. We don’t have much to work on at the moment, Miss Barrat,” Stirling said calmly. “There’s no CCTV in that area, not much evidence at the scene, no body, no signs that a crime took place and we don’t know the identity of the man that was kidnapped, except that you called him Mike.” He sat back and Toni imagined that his chair would be under immense stress. “You can see where we are at, can’t you?”

  “Yes, square one.”

  “We’re not even on square one,” Annie said shaking her head.

  Toni racked her brains. She felt like an amateur. “God, I feel so bloody useless,” she said racking her brains for anything that help. “The men mentioned a name,” she paused. “In fact, they mentioned it twice.”

  “Go on,” the DI said.

  “I heard them say that they would let ‘Ivor’ decide what to do with Mike.”

  “Ivor?”

  “Yes.”

  “That’s it?”

  “It’s Russian,” Toni added. As soon as she had said it, she wished that she hadn’t. She knew that it was a useless piece of trivia. “I think.”

  “It could be,” Stirling nodded. “It could be Welsh too. Remember ‘Ivor the Engine’ from the children’s programme?” Toni shook her head. “Before your time,” he added with a smile. “It is similar to John or Dave or Mike. There are versions of it worldwide but it is something, thank you.”

  “It doesn’t help us much right now but if we catch someone, then who knows?” Annie agreed.

  “You must be able to do something for heaven’s sake?” Toni said quietly. She ran her fingers through her hair. As the facts ran through her mind, she couldn’t see anything else beyond what the big detective had said. They didn’t have anything but her unsubstantiated story. “Surely,” she said desperately. A tear broke free from her eye and rolled down her cheek. “There must be something you can do to find him?” Her voice tailed off to a whisper.

  “You can do something to help us find him,” the DI said folding her arms. “We need the name of your source.”

  “I can’t give you that.” Toni shook her head. Part of her wanted to scream the name of her source but she couldn’t. Her ethics defined her. She had worked hard in a competitive field and although she wasn’t popular with the police, the Crown Prosecution or the Probation Service, she had their respect. If she gave away her source, no one would speak to her again. Discretion and integrity were her promises to any would-be whistleblower. Without them she would be finished. “It would cost me my reputation.”

  “Not telling us could cost Mike his life,” Stirling countered. There was no malice in his voice. He could see Toni was shaken. “I’m not trying to frighten you, Toni.” He paused. “Do you mind if I call you Toni?” She shook her head. “I’m just stating the facts.”

  “I can’t reveal my source,” she bit her lip. “And I’m not sure it would help if I did.” She tried to convince herself as well as the detectives. “We didn’t think that we were going to witness that. We had no idea.” She seemed to drift for a second. “Have you ever heard of this drug ‘zombie’?” She looked at Stirling quizzically.

  “Never,” he answered with a shake of the head. “But there’s a new drug on the streets every day especially with legal highs. We’ll look into it though and I’m sure the Drug Squad detectives who you spoke to are already on it.”

  “It is crazy,” Toni sighed. “I can’t believe it happ
ened.”

  “What did you think was going to happen?” Annie probed again.

  Toni raised her eyebrows and shook her head. “I can’t say but it wasn’t anything like what happened.”

  “You’re hanging your colleague out to dry.”

  “You can’t make me feel any guiltier than I already do.”

  “Like it or not,” the DI continued. “Your colleague was taken by a very professional gang. From what you have told us, they were in and out of the deal in ten minutes?” Toni thought about it and nodded. “Let me ask you this. Why do you think they took him rather than killing him right there where he fell?”

  “They found the camera,” Toni blushed again. Not for the first time she wondered about the pictures he had taken before he had fallen. “And obviously he was a witness.”

  “Yes, he was, but what had he actually seen?”

  “I’ve told you,” Toni sighed.

  “You’re missing the point,” Annie stressed. “What had he actually seen?” Toni looked confused. “Nothing!”

  “What are you saying?”

  “You said that all the men were masked.”

  “Yes.”

  “So what could he have seen that could have put them away?”

  “Nothing I suppose.”

  “Exactly.” The DI crossed her legs and smoothed her skirt again. She shook her head almost imperceptibly and stared into Toni’s eyes. Toni realised that her left eye was damaged. The ghost of a jagged scar ran down her cheek, well disguised by her makeup. “You told me that they found his camera and realised that he had filmed some of the exchange,” the DI shrugged as she spoke. “These people are extremely protective of their organisations and now they know that they have a leak. They took him to ask him how he knew that they would be there, why he was filming them and who else knew that he was there. They will apply pressure to discover how he knew about their handover and I mean the most extreme pressure.”

  “Oh, my God,” Toni cringed inside. Her eyes widened as the reality of the situation struck home. “Do you think they’ll torture him?”

  “Undoubtedly they will. These traffickers are ruthless and it doesn’t matter how tough this guy is, he will tell them what they want to know eventually,” Stirling said solemnly. “The chances are that he’s already told them about you and who your source is,” Stirling added as he looked at his watch. “Assuming that he knew anything about you or your source?”