The Sect (The Craig Crime Series) Read Online Free PDF Page A

sitting behind its reception desk. Gone was the sad, beige matron who’d worked for his old boss Terry Harrison, to be replaced by an invigorated woman who looked younger than her years. In place of the stiff grey hairstyle she’d once worn there was a newly tinted bob, and where beige skirt suits had been the order of the day, there were now chic trousers and colourful shirts.
    She greeted the detectives cheerfully and Craig’s pleasure at her obvious happiness was doubled by the knowledge that by finding her a new job he’d screwed over the man who’d kept her down for years, D.C.S. Terry ‘Teflon’ Harrison. It couldn’t have been more deserved.
    She showed them into Geoff Hamill’s office and after a minute of Liam insulting Hamill’s short stature and Hamill insulting back, the Head of Gang Crime removed a thick file from his drawer and set it on the desk.
    “Right. People trafficking.”
    Hamill’s small eyes darted down the contents page then he turned it over, repeating the action with the page below. Liam finally broke the silence.
    “Lovely and all as it is to watch you reading, Geoff, do you have anything useful for us or not?”
    Hamill gave Craig a pitying look. “How do you put up with him?”
    “He’s useful in a fight.” Craig gestured at the file. “Anything for us?”
    Hamill’s face said that he wasn’t sure. “Yes and no. There are two gangs running brothels in Northern Ireland; one’s Chinese, but the Chinese tend to stick with their own, and one comes from Albania. They have forty houses between them.”
    Craig’s eyes widened. He wasn’t naïve; after working in London for years it would have been hard, but he had to admit to being surprised at so many brothels in such a small place.
    “Just how big is the sex trade here?”
    “Open or underground?”
    “Either. Both.”
    Hamill shrugged like a defeated man. “Growing every day.”
    “Surely demand can’t be that strong?”
    Liam had only been half listening but now he roused himself. “Did you come up the Lagan in a bubble, boss? Check out craigslist for Belfast and that’ll show you what goes on here.” Suddenly he burst out laughing. “I’ve just realised. Craigslist – and you’re Craig! Get it? Have you been double jobbing?”
    Craig raised an eyebrow. “I’ll leave that to the MLAs.” He waved Hamill on.
    “OK, so your girl might have been trafficked by the Albanians, but if she was…”
    “Why would they kill a valuable asset?”
    “Exactly. Once they’ve got the girls here and hooked them on drugs they work them till they’re thirty. If they’re still alive after that they usually just throw them out.”
    “Charmers.”
    “Not even their mothers would call them that.” Hamill warmed to his theme. “They target girls from small villages in Eastern Europe who are desperate to leave, and entice them to the UK with fictional jobs as nannies or hotel workers. Or they find girls whose parents want rid of them for whatever reason, in which case they pay the families a small amount, smuggle the girls in, take their passports and make them work for nothing until they’ve paid back their debt.”
    “Which, with high interest rates, they never do.”
    Hamill nodded. “Never, and everyone agrees it’s disgusting, but they don’t kill their assets. Not unless your girl was really out of control and then the favoured murder weapon would have been a gun or a knife. They wouldn’t have wasted their time drowning her and wrapping her up.”
    “Can you help us at all?”
    Hamill shrugged. “I can ask around and see when or if she was brought in. Leave it with me. But if she was a hooker your best source could be Vice.”
    “Next stop.” Craig rose and headed for the door. “Thanks, Geoff. We’d be grateful for anything you can find.”
    He turned to see where Liam was, only to find him placing the file on the highest shelf in the room. By the time Hamill had noticed they were at the