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

tried. When we raid them they just regroup and traffick more, so we’re working with Interpol to cut them off at both ends. If we can get the recruiting gangs, traffickers and brothel owners all at once then we can make a clean sweep, but if word leaks out anywhere along the chain they’ll pack up and the girls will never be seen again.”
    Carmen had been listening in silence, wondering why she was there and worrying that it signalled her transfer back to Vice. She’d been difficult with Craig since she’d joined his team so she wouldn’t blame him if he wanted rid of her, but she really didn’t want to leave; she was just starting to feel at home in the Murder Squad. She smiled at Craig more pleasantly than she ever did anything.
    “How can I help, sir?”
    Liam jerked upright in shock; her tone had verged on submissive and that meant she was up to something. Craig heard the tone too but he recognised it for what it was; fear of being returned to Hughes’ team.
    “I’m glad you asked, Carmen. Two dead bodies have been found and we believe the first one, a girl in her late teens, may have been a prostitute, possibly Eastern European. She might have been trafficked and as you’ve worked in Vice I’d like you to act as our liaison and help get us an I.D.”
    Carmen smiled as quickly as Aidan Hughes frowned. He knew her of old and he wasn’t keen to renew the acquaintance. He cut in hastily.
    “We’re fine to work it ourselves, Marc.”
    Craig shook his head, remembering how keen Hughes had been to have Carmen transferred from Vice to Murder, selling her to Liam as some sort of golden girl. Revenge, in the form of Carmen as liaison, was sweet.
    “I wouldn’t hear of it, Aidan; you have your own work to do. Carmen knows how you operate and the sooner she starts the sooner we can let this girl’s family know that she’s dead. ” He turned to the petite Scot. “Make a start now, please, and then join us for the briefing at five. Doctor Winter has the girl’s details.”
    As he opened the door Liam was certain he saw Craig grin.
    “Don’t worry, Aidan. Just leave Carmen to get on with it quietly. She won’t be any trouble.”
    Everybody in the room knew it was a lie.
     
    ****
     
    As Craig went to press the button for the tenth floor, Liam whimpered, halting his finger in mid-air.
    “I take it from that noise you’re hungry?”
    The D.C.I.’s doleful eyes said yes.
    “OK, if you promise to stop looking like one of those big-eyed paintings, we’ll go over to The James for lunch. Give the others a call.”
    “Margaret Keane.”
    “Who?”
    “She does all that big-eyed stuff.”
    Craig shot him a look that made Liam bluster out a defence.
    “Danni likes them.”
    “Danni? Yeh, of course.”
    As they crossed Barrow Square in the sunshine Liam called the office, while Craig gazed longingly at the river as they passed.
    “The Tall Ships are coming again in July.”
    Liam nodded vaguely and ended his call. He’d never understood Craig’s obsession with water but he humoured him with a question all the same.
    “Did you go last time?”
    Craig’s face lit up. “Yes. It was brilliant.”
    Liam surprised himself by being curious. “Did your folks take you sailing when you were a kid, then?”
    He thought of his own land-locked farm childhood. Climbing trees and lying in the long grass with Gráinne Mullan from the dairy farm down the lane. A leer crossed his face but Craig decided not to ask who it was about.
    “Yes. My mum has family near the lakes in Lombardy and we spent some summers there. And my dad’s family were involved in the shipping trade here for generations back.” He pointed enthusiastically back towards the C.C.U. “My grandmother’s house was on Pilot Street. It was amazing. At one point it even had a well in the hall to draw water from the Lagan.”
    Liam had heard the story before so he composed his face to look interested while he thought of his own misspent youth. Forty