The small hairs on the back of Jack’s neck bristled. If Ridley were his normal self, right now, Jack thought, he’d put you back in your sanctimonious cage.
‘One of the low-hanging fruit,’ Steve continued, ‘one we’ve been softening up for a couple of weeks, has a passport that goes nowhere other than Belgium. We combined forces, using Visser as our liaison and, two days ago, we seized a huge shipment destined for the UK: 34 kg of cocaine, 470 kg of cannabis and 15 kg of cutting agent, hidden inside metal rollers used to make industrial conveyor belts. Once we knew what we were looking for, we found evidence of eighteen similarly sized shipments, moving in exactly the same way over the past two years. That’s an estimated 68 million pounds’ worth on the streets. Once the shipments hit the UK, they got split and distributed across the country and on to Ireland.’ Jack made a mental note of yet another mention of Ireland. ‘As well as numerous small-fry, we arrested fourteen gang members from higher up the ladder. Some of them are already talking, passing the buck and doing deals for easier rides. It seems...’ Steve left a dramatic pause in order to build the tension, ‘amongst the arrests, we have one of your trio of killers.’
Jack and Ridley drove back to their own squad room, both silently churning over the idea of interviewing Avril Jenkins’ potential killer. They were both pissed off not to have been in on the arrest... or more to the point, not to have even known about the arrest. But none of that was worth agonising over now. Now they had to get justice for Avril.
Ridley broke the silence. ‘What the hell is the link between all of that and Avril Jenkins? Why did they choose her and why did they kill her? And Adam Border... how does he fit in?’ Ridley’s questions were the exact same ones that were swimming around in Jack’s head.
‘Sir, from what I understand, DCI Lewis has got Mahoney down as kingpin because someone told him that’s who he was. We should reserve judgement. Lewis moves far too quickly. He’s arrested dozens of people and has no actual clue who he’s got.’
Ridley nodded, and then took a deep breath. ‘Unless the top guy is our missing Adam Border — which I doubt, because I think he’s long dead. That’s the reason we’ve been unable to trace him.’
The whole of Ridley’s team — including key uniformed officers from early on in the investigation — were gathered in the squad room ready for the big update. Ridley didn’t say too much about the drugs angle, but instead focussed on one of the men suspected of Avril Jenkins’ murder who was being escorted across to their station in the next two hours.
‘Jack and I will interview. Anik, stay on top of whichever member of the Drug Squad you think will be the most forthcoming.’
‘That’ll be Moley, sir.’
‘Fine. Keep on him. Hour by hour if you have to. And if DCI Lewis feels the need to get involved, you let me know. Regardless of the lack of communication, we are where we need to be. Our job now is to find every existing connection between the new names — such as Mahoney — and the Jenkins house, including confirmation whether Adam Border is deceased. These are threads that the Drug Squad will have no interest in tying up. Anik, feed everything back to Laura and we’ll figure out the relevance from here. Thank you, everyone, for your patience and hard work. It’s been disjointed, but you’ve all stuck with it, aiming for the bigger picture. We’re nearly there.’
Ridley’s mobile pinged, telling him that their suspected killer had just arrived in the custody area.
‘Ready, Jack? I don’t know about you, but one out of three isn’t good enough for me.’
Chapter 34
Ridley sat in the observation room looking through a two-way mirror into the interview room where Jack sat opposite Avril Jenkins’ alleged killer. Two uniformed officers stood just inside the door, sentry-like, in case Jack needed assistance.
On their way to the custody area, Ridley had made the decision that the interview would initially be done by Jack alone. This gave them the flexibility to introduce a second officer halfway through proceedings, to make the prisoner feel either more or less relaxed, as needed.
The man sitting in the interview room across from Jack was white, in his mid-40s, with shaved greying hair and three-day stubble. His close-set eyes were brown and, due to being slightly overweight, he seemed to have no wrinkles at all. He wore a gold stud in his right ear and a badly made friendship bracelet on his wrist suggesting that somewhere there might be a child who loved him.
‘Your passport says your name is John, so that’s what I’ll call you.’ Jack planned to start gently, regardless of the acid revulsion he could feel building in the pit of his stomach. If this guy did turn out to be one of the men who so brutally murdered Avril, Jack wasn’t sure he’d be able to hold his temper. But for now his tone remained light. ‘Unless you want to choose something else. I’m sure John’s not your real name and four days of being called something you don’t like could get tedious.’
The man didn’t flinch at the thought of being kept in police custody for four days. He’d clearly done it before.
‘How’s about Dave?’ He grinned, showing a small gold implant in his right lateral incisor. Jack grinned back. Not because he’d taken a step towards bonding with the low-life in front of him, but because he’d got him to speak, and now he knew ‘Dave’ was a Leeds man.
‘You’re facing possible charges that — when proved — will see you sent down for life,’ Jack began. Dave folded his arms, sat back and said nothing. ‘Did you know there were cameras in the house?’ The tiny muscles beneath Dave’s eyes twitched. ‘Now you’re trying to work out if I’m telling the truth. But do you know what you should have said? “What house?”’ Dave remained impassive. ‘What part of Leeds are you from?’ Dave’s lips curled into a half-smile. He thought Jack was funny, and he was definitely not afraid.
Jack pushed onwards, asking Dave about his upbringing, if he had a drug habit, if he ever met the person who gave the order to kill. He even offered Dave a deal and protection if he gave them the top names. ‘Who made the friendship bracelet for you? A daughter? Niece? You must have people you care about. I know how this works. You think you have to keep quiet to keep them safe. That’s not how you protect your family — you do it by helping us.’
Dave was ‘no comment’ from the very start. The only words he had spoken in forty minutes were, ‘How’s about Dave?’
Jack instructed the two officers to take him back to his cell.
In the observation room, Ridley was on his mobile.
‘Thank you, Steve, I appreciate that. Yeah, I’ll send them both back to you once we’ve got what we need.’ Ridley slid his mobile back into his pocket. He stared into the empty interview room. ‘The second individual called Soren Bech has just been given up for Avril’s murder. So, we could have two of them now. Anik’s escorting him across.’
‘They’re scapegoats, sir,’ Jack said. ‘Dave wasn’t even listening to me. He glazed over right after my comment about him being from Leeds. From that moment... nothing. No twitches, no micro-gestures. Nothing. He’s going to go into custody for a few months, whilst we look for hard evidence and then he’ll be released. And he knows it. He’s been told to go “no comment” and hold his nerve. And meanwhile, this Michael Mahoney — we believe him to be the sharp dresser in the Jag and the Drug Squad are certain he’s the main man, but I reckon he will vanish into thin air. Dave and Soren may well be two of our killers, but they’re not scared of being arrested.’ Jack paced the tiny box-like room. ‘And I don’t blame them! We’ve got nothing.’