The Crime Trade Read Online Free PDF Page A

seconds of the first shots being fired in the car park,' said Leon Ferman, a powerfully built black man who looked like he didn't take criticism lightly. 'And within thirty, both suspects were dead. How much faster would you have wanted it done?'
'Fast enough to have saved him,' said Stegs drily.
Ferman started to say something else but Malik put up a hand to stop him. 'It's OK, Leon,' he said, and Ferman reluctantly quietened. The fact remains, Stegs, that he didn't give the signal, and we had absolutely no idea they were going to shoot him. SO19 were in the rooms directly on either side, as you're fully aware, and were given the order to go in as quickly as possible. It's a tragedy that it wasn't quick enough, but there was nothing we could have done about that.'
The operation's handlers - Flanagan, Malik and Ferman - had been watching events unfold from a room some way down the corridor from the one where the meeting had been taking place. Tina and I had been in there too, along with the translator and several other technical staff, and we'd seen near enough everything, bar the final bloody denouement, which had taken place off camera. Because the operations room had been on the other side of the hotel from the car park, and the shooting out of immediate earshot, it had only just been picked up on the surveillance tapes. As a result, there'd been a momentary delay before the order to go in was relayed by Ferman to the SO19 team, a delay that had proved fatal. However, it was difficult to know what could have been done to prevent it. Our operational incident room had deliberately been located some distance from where the deal was going down, because having that many people so close, particularly when we had the tapes of what was being said playing in the room, would have aroused too much suspicion.
Flanagan, though, clearly knew that plenty of people were going to be hunting for mistakes, and would probably find at least some, so he was following the politician's standard
philosophy of blaming someone else. 'So, you had no idea why Fellano could have made that call, or who he was calling?' he demanded, the suggestion clear that he thought Jenner must have known.
'Of course I didn't. Why would I?'
'Nothing was discussed?'
'No.' Stegs stubbed out his cigarette. 'Look, I don't know what the fuck you're trying to insinuate, but all I was trying to do was nail one of the bad guys. It fucked up, the whole thing fucked up, and I lost a good mate. ..' He paused for a moment as if that particular piece of news had only just fully arrived in his consciousness. 'But it can't be my fault that a bunch of blokes I've never seen in my life suddenly turn up out of the blue, pull shooters, and stage an armed robbery right in the middle of the op. Someone should have spotted them a mile off. Why didn't that happen? And why did they get a chance to start shooting?'
'The op was stretched,' said Ferman. 'If you hadn't decided to go walkabout with the target, then we'd have had a lot better coverage. We had to pull men from all over the place to get them into that car park.'
'You know, you're all looking at everything the wrong way.'
'What do you mean?' demanded Flanagan.
Those blokes who turned up out of the blue were the ones who fucked this job. How did they know about the operation? That's the question.'
Which was the moment when Flanagan, Ferman and Stegs all turned and looked straight at Tina and me.
'Hold on,' said Tina, making a pre-emptive strike. 'Wait a minute here. We gave you guys a lead, and we've had nothing further to do with it, so don't start setting us up for fall-guys.'
'It's a good question, though,' said Malik. 'How did they know about the deal? Could your informant have talked?'
Our informant - the one who'd helped organize this meeting -Robert O'Brien, better known as Slim Robbie on account of the fact that he was as fat as a house. A thirty-year-old thug and career criminal who'd only agreed to set up the Colombians to