‘Yes, I saw her on the way in.Pretty one, isn’t she?’
‘She certainly is, but you know the rules, Visser.We don’t touch the merchandise, do we?’
It was said with a smile, but Leyla’s steely gaze belied her bonhomie.She was in deadly earnest, happy to dispense with – or dispose of – anyone who didn’t understand the value of her cargo.
‘Of course, Leyla.I’m a perfect gentleman, as you know.’
It was said breezily, but Visser was backtracking fast, which pleased her.The Dutchman was useful, but at the end of the day,he was just a mule, a cog in the machine.Leyla knew he had money problems, she knew he had emotional entanglements, all of which could be used against him if necessary.Avoiding her eye, the haulier departed, hurrying back down the stairs.Turning, Leyla returned to the window.In the yard below, all was activity, her well-drilled crew marshalling the new arrivals towards the accommodation block.Looking down on them from her first-floor vantage point, Leyla felt that familiar surge of power.She was in control here.Everyone in this camp, from the workers, to their guards, to Visser himself, were in thrall to her success, her strength of character, her will to win.
And they would do well to remember that.
Chapter 21
Had she been too harsh?Too aggressive?Since leaving the pub, Charlie had been replaying her conversation with Helen, wondering if she’d pushed back too firmly on her request for help, even though she’d tried her best to be polite in doing so.It felt odd to be gainsaying Helen, stranger still to be the one with the power, telling her former mentor what could and could not be done.She had been right to refuse, she felt sure of that, as there was no question of her deploying police resources on a half-baked quest for justice.Charlie couldn’t get the sign-off for it, even if she wanted to, and if she was honest, she wasn’t sure shedid.Though she hesitated to say it to her old friend, a strong sense of resentment, of disappointment, lingered following Helen’s decision to quit.In the days after her rash resignation, Charlie had worked tirelessly to try to persuade her old friend to stay in post, but her words had cut no ice, a failure which still rankled.
Wrenching her thoughts back to the present, Charlie chided herself for allowing Helen to distract her from the matter in hand.Today’s operation had been an embarrassing failure and Charlie was sure the reckoning would be swift.She wanted to have something to show for their efforts before the inevitable showdown with Chief Superintendent Rebecca Holmes.
‘Right, everyone present?’she asked, casting around the incident room.
On cue, the final stragglers joined the rest of the team at DC Roberts’ desk.
‘Then let’s begin.DC Roberts, would you mind playing the audio recording of the Border Force tip-off?’
The young officer responded, clicking the ‘Play’ symbol on his screen.Immediately the audio file sprang to life, filling the incident room with a jarring, mechanical noise.Then, seconds later, a male voice cut through:
‘Got a shipment incoming,’ the man growled breathlessly, fighting to be heard above the background noise.‘Human cargo, twelve bodies.Arriving on the 17th on the 7.15 a.m.boat from Rotterdam.The driver’s name is Luc Peeters and he’s driving a Belgian truck, registration plate 1 AYB 209.The end location is the Maslen industrial estate in South Portswood.’
Then the line went dead, the audio file coming to an abrupt end.
‘Again, please,’ Charlie requested.
DC Roberts obliged, the team standing in silence as they listened intently to the anonymous tip-off.As it came to an end, it was DC Shona Williams who spoke first:
‘It’s a young male, definitely local I’d say, maybe late twenties, early thirties.’
Several of the team nodded in agreement.
‘Sounds to me like a working man,’ DC Williams continued.‘Maybe he works on the dockside, or for one of the suppliers who cater to the workforce there.’
‘Could just as easily be a rival gang member, someone who thought they were putting one over the competition.’
‘Not very effectively,’ DC Malik offered, though her joke raised few smiles.
‘Or it could just as easily be a hoax,’ DC Roberts piped up.‘You get all sorts of weirdos calling these hotlines, for a laugh, for attention …’
‘Or it could be some rando who’s pissed off with Adam Peeters,’ DC Williams offered.
Charlie felt a spike of anger and frustration.Peeters was the last person she wanted to think about, the aggrieved haulier having already filed an official complaint over his arrest, promising to sue Hampshire Police for loss of earnings.
‘Let’s try to stay positive,’ she insisted.‘Let’s assume this guy knew what he was doing, that he has some knowledge of the trafficking trade, even if his role was only to muddy the waters or mislead us.If that’s so, then it would obviously be good to locate him.What do we think that sound in the background is?Can we place him anywhere specific?’
Roberts hit ‘Play’ once more, Charlie leaning in closer, but still she couldn’t make out what the insistent sound was.
‘Is that music?Or machinery?’she queried.
‘Or some mode of transport?A train rumbling by …’ DC Malik responded.
‘It sounds to me like a printer of some kind,’ DC Rayson pitched in.‘The way there’s two bursts of noise, then a brief pause, then the two bursts again …’
