Riddled on the Sands (The Lakeland Murders) (28 page)

‘It could be a different shipment, not connected to ours, but I doubt it’ he said firmly. ‘It’s got to be big, and it’s got to be soon.’

‘And you seriously think that they’ll try the same place, and the same delivery method again?’

‘I do. I think they’re using a small boat, an inflatable maybe, and it’s just the safest way of getting the drugs ashore. And if they have got someone in the village, and I’m convinced they have, they’ll know that our focus is the murders. We’re not geared up to watch for a shipment coming in one night, it’s obvious. They’re literally at no more risk than they were before.’

‘So what are you suggesting?’

‘Ideally, that you, the Drugs Super and the Chief get together, and sign off on a joint operation, us and Drugs working together.’

‘But you want other agencies involved too, I take it?’

‘No, no ma’am I don’t. Absolutely not.’

‘Because you can’t be sure that the contact isn’t working for one of them?’

‘Or connected to one of them in some way, that’s right. We’ve had a look at the Coastguards locally, because they all received copies of our drug alert emails, and they’ve all been eliminated.’ Hall couldn’t help but notice the expression on Gorham’s face. ‘Yes, ma’am, I know. I’ll let Drugs know, and no doubt they will want to take steps to ensure that it doesn’t happen again. But for now I’d like to apply the precautionary principle, and keep this very much to ourselves.’

‘Quite right too, Andy. But let me get this straight. You want to mount a round-the clock covert observation of the Flookburgh area, and of the Bay beyond.’

‘Yes, ma’am, and with firearms support.’

‘How many people?’

‘It’s not really my area, ma’am, but I’d guess at least half a dozen for each of the three shifts, with supporting infrastructure as well.’

Gorham made a note, and Hall thought she was going to reach for her large desk calculator. She didn’t.

‘You do appreciate the costs involved in all this, Andy?’

‘I do, ma’am, but this is an armed gang we’re talking about here, and they’re certainly not afraid of using their weapons. I do believe that we’re talking about a very major shipment size, incidentally. So we could get a good return on our investment, as it were.’

‘And who would be your lead officer on the ground? Ian Mann, I take it?’

‘Yes, certainly. He’s perfect for it.’

‘Maybe, but you appreciate that I can’t allow him to carry a firearm?’

‘I was hoping that it might be possible to reconsider that decision, ma’am. In the light of this situation.’

‘Absolutely not. Sergeant Mann was involved in the violent deaths of two suspects, and a condition of his disciplinary hearing was that his firearms authorisation was to be revoked.’

‘And reviewed, ma’am.’

‘In twelve months, Andy. I’m sorry, but Mann will remain unarmed until then.’

‘But he was in the special forces, ma’am. He understands these kinds of operations.’

Gorham looked exasperated, more than annoyed. ‘What is it about men and the special forces? That doesn’t make him some kind of superman, and it doesn’t give him any right to operate outside our operational parameters. And I expect you to make that clear to Mann, Andy. If I can get this authorised there will be no guns in the hands of anyone but the deployed firearms officers. Is that understood?’

‘Of course. So you’ll see what you can do?’

‘I will.’

‘And you can cover the fact that Rachel came to me unofficially? I was thinking that one way of handling that might be to praise her actions in front of the Chief and the new Drugs Super, and get Drugs onside that way. That would leave Rachel in the clear.’

Gorham smiled. Hall always found that slightly unnerving. ‘I really don’t need advice on that point, Andy. But rest assured that no harm will come to DS Skinner. Though, if she was my officer she’d have some questions to answer. I will not have my officers going behind my back, or withholding information from me.’

Hall didn’t say anything. He was pretty sure that it wasn’t a question anyway. And, as he’d expected, Gorham wasn’t quite finished on that point either. ‘It has taken you some time to inform me of this conversation with DS Skinner, hasn’t it, Inspector?’

‘We are in the middle of a double murder investigation, ma’am, and if we’d been able to make a connection through Skelton then this potential line wouldn’t have been relevant.’

‘Even so, I do expect to be fully informed, and I do mean fully. Is that clear?’ Hall nodded. ‘Good. And there’s nothing else that you’d like to tell me now, is there? Something that you might not have mentioned before, for whatever reason?’

Hall’s expression was as neutral as ever.

‘No, ma’am, nothing. Nothing at all.’

When Jane had completed the paperwork on Mike Skelton and left it on Hall’s desk, she sat at her own and thought about it all for a moment. She’d recommended no further action, and she was certain that Hall and the CPS would agree. There was no realistic chance of convicting Skelton for anything. When she’d started in the job, and submitted her first file, she was amazed, then infuriated, when the CPS didn’t progress it at all. Turned it down flat, in fact. It had been a domestic, and the bloke had as good as admitted to ABH, although the victim, his wife, had said nothing. Jane had been proved right too, because six months later the same man committed a much more violent assault on his wife. But no-one she spoke to at work seemed to be surprised when she mentioned it, or gave any appearance of being outraged either.

But Mike Skelton’s low-rent blackmail of a man who was now dead didn’t bother Jane very much at all. Perhaps she had just given up on justice. But it hadn’t led to any serious consequences, and although she wasn’t inclined to make allowances, because Jane Francis had an absolutely unshakeable belief that everyone is entirely responsible for their own actions, she did have the feeling that gamblers are much like other addicts. That’s why she hated all the online gambling ads that were on TV. ‘It’s like all those ads pushing payday loans, or the ones that used to be on before the credit-crunch saying that people should take equity out of their homes’ she’d said to Andy. ‘They just make more work for us, one way or another. Shit, do I sound like “angry and middle-aged of Kendal” to you?’ Hall had known better than to reply.

Jane looked at her emails, and saw that one had come in from John Perkins.

‘Here’s what you wanted. Did this old fart really set fire to my stock?’

‘That’s what I’d like to know’ said Jane Francis, as she made a folder for the rest of the emails to go in. She glanced through a few before she ran the searches. They were just the emails from Robinson, not Perkins’ replies, so it made for slightly frustrating reading, but Jane persevered, as she always did.

Twenty minutes later she felt that she knew Miles Robinson a good bit better. The early emails from him to Perkins were confident, businesslike, and contained the odd joke and literary aside, which Jane had to look up. She very much doubted that Perkins had done the same. And it seemed that Robinson wasn’t getting much back from Perkins, because as time went on the emails grew shorter, and it was clear that the balance of power was shifting from seller to buyer. And, as far as Jane could make out, even when a final price was agreed, and a collection and payment date set, Perkins had still been on the look out for a further discount. It wasn’t clear whether or not Robinson had managed to hold out for his original price, but Jane doubted it. ‘You little shit’ she said, quietly.

Before she ran the comparison between the threatening letter and the new emails from Robinson she asked herself what outcome she would prefer: further matches, or none? If it was the latter then Robinson would be effectively eliminated, because she wouldn’t have enough to take to Andy Hall, still less the CPS. But if there were matches, even one or two, then she’d be talking to Miles Robinson under caution, and the old man would be looking at jail time if he was convicted for the arson. Normally she’d have wanted matches, and as many as possible, because she had no other suspects for the arson, and no likelihood of further evidence coming to light. So her only realistic chance of a result was to put Robinson firmly in the frame.

When she pressed ‘enter’ Jane still wasn’t absolutely sure what she wanted, but when the results came back she knew. She was disappointed. She realised that she wanted to find none. There were two hits, neither of which she’d noticed when she’d read through the emails. She printed them out, and looked at the others that she’d got before. Was it enough to talk to Robinson again? Common sense suggested it would be, but she knew that Hall would be thinking ahead to a possible prosecution, and he would ask what the intelligence team at HQ thought, and whether or not the hits could just be co-incidence. So Jane started drafting an email, in which she asked all the questions that she could think of.   She wasn’t entirely sure that Hall wouldn’t have more, but she was a bit tired of feeling in competition with him at work. So she pressed ‘send’.

Then Jane made a cup of tea, and went back to her desk. She felt tired and a bit down, but she knew better than to show it, at work or at home. When she’d first met Andy Hall she’d admired the way that he never seemed to bring anything from home to work, even when his marriage was collapsing, but now she wasn’t so sure. She couldn’t ever really tell what he was thinking, let alone feeling, even about her. She had never been in the slightest doubt that his daughters were his prime concern, and she’d admired that from the very start of their relationship, even from before the start. But now, for the first time, she could just feel the seed of a doubt somewhere at the back of her mind. And as Jane knew from experience, her mind always offered doubts a particularly friendly home.

Tuesday, 2nd July

Ian Mann had left a message for Jimmy Rae, and he was waiting on the foreshore when Mann arrived. It was still dry, but close, and the billowing skyscrapers of cloud over the Bay told of downpours to come.

‘Thanks for meeting me, Jimmy.’

‘Not a problem.’

‘You just happened to be around, then?’

‘I did. So what did you want to talk about? Your optimistic little plan to catch our quarry?’

‘Aye. We knew you’d have been filled in about it, but Andy had a couple of messages for you.’

‘Go on.’

‘First, that he hasn’t briefed anyone, formally or informally, about your presence here.’

Rae nodded. That much was clearly no surprise to him.

‘Second, Andy wanted me to ask if we could co-operate over the next few days. Really co-operate, that is.’

‘What did he have in mind?’

‘Pool our resources, like. Work together to make the arrests, if we get the chance.’

‘And who would have operational command on the ground? From your side I mean.’

‘Me. I’ve been detached from normal duties. Because of my background in covert operations I’ve got the nod. Nothing to do with rank. The new Super in our Drugs team has signed off, and so have our firearms lads.’

‘That certainly makes things easier for us. You understand our rules of engagement and mission parameters, so I don’t have to explain those. So yes, why not? But you’re our sole point of contact, and none of the other officers are to know of our presence until the last possible moment. Agreed?’

‘Agreed. We need to come up with a story to cover how we know each other, just in case we’re seen.’

‘How about the truth? Old army buddies, and I’m up here on holiday for a couple of weeks. Walking, mountain biking. We just met up to discuss old times.’

‘Fair enough. But DI Hall did make one other point.’

‘Let me guess. It’s about what happens if and when we do run into our chummies out on the Bay?’

‘Sort of. He wanted to be clear about the legal framework within which you operate.’

‘You really don’t need me to tell you that. It’s just the same as when you were with us, Ian. Sworn Police officers have authority to make any arrests, and we will assist in any way that we can. However, should I or my soldiers decide that we or you are in mortal danger we will take the necessary steps, and we have full legal back-up for that. To be clear, if we or you are in danger we will shoot dead any armed men that we encounter. We will issue a warning, provided they don’t open fire on sight. But if they shoot, we shoot back, and we don’t stop until they have. It’s not a debating society.’

‘That’s clear. I have explained it to him, but I think he’s sort of hoping that you’d give us the chance to make the arrests, if we get the chance.’

‘Ian, you know the score. They’ll be given one opportunity to surrender and be arrested, but if they don’t then there’s only one course of action open to us.’

‘Even if there’s no-one to stand trial after?’

‘That’s really not my concern. I assume that you will be armed? I’d certainly be happier that way. No disrespect to your firearms officers, but my guess is that it would all be over before they’d gone through their check-lists.’