Hot Seat

Lap Thirty-Four

Steve and I were at work on Gates’ Jensen Interceptor when we heard the sound of a car sliding to a halt behind Archway. I checked my watch. It was just after ten. I’d called Claudia with an update after I’d left Gates’ factory last night. Barrington still wasn’t taking my calls. An hour later, she’d called back telling me Barrington wanted to meet the next morning.

‘It’s him,’ I said to Steve. ‘Brace yourself.’

He frowned.

A moment later, Barrington burst through the door with Claudia in tow.

‘What the hell happened yesterday?’ he shouted across the workshop. ‘I didn’t get you out of jail just so that you could fuck me. If you did, God help you, son, I’ll make sure you won’t get a job driving shopping trolleys at Tesco’s.’

I expected this display after the botched search yesterday. It was time for him to throw his weight around to frighten the natives.

Steve pulled on the Interceptor’s throttle cable. The engine note increased until it drowned out Barrington’s words.

Barrington glared at Steve. Steve released the throttle cable and the noise dropped to a soft idle.

‘Please close the door,’ Steve said, keeping his tone low and calm.

Disgust darkened Barrington’s expression. ‘Do you know who I am?’

‘I don’t give a shit who you are. This is my place of business, so you’ll show some respect. You can start by closing the door.’

Claudia took a step backward. ‘It’s OK, I’ll do it.’

‘No, not you, love. Let him do it.’

‘I can have this place shut down in a second. I just have to say the word.’

‘No, you can’t. No crimes have been committed and you don’t have a warrant. You can’t do shit.’

‘Just try me. I got your grandson out of jail, but I can put him right back there and he’ll never be heard from again. I’ll bury him.’

‘Keep up with the mouth and you won’t leave this building upright.’

Barrington laughed dismissively. ‘Are you threatening me?’

‘Just fair warning and I warn only once.’ Steve picked up a two-foot-long adjustable spanner. ‘No one threatens my grandson. Not you. Not anyone.’

Steve was the best. He was my bulletproof vest.

‘I understand that the situation you’re in has gotten away from you, so you need to keep a grip on what you have left. You conscripted this lad to help crack your case. If you still want his help, you’ll keep it civil. You can start by closing my door.’

Barrington held his ground for a moment before returning to the workshop door and closing it.

I looked at Claudia. The set-to had failed to ruffle her feathers. I was in the presence of the Unflappables.

‘OK, let’s get down to business,’ Steve said and led the way to our situation room. He sat on the table and Claudia sat next to him, while Barrington and I remained standing.

Barrington looked at our freshly re-mounted murder board with names, facts and connections linking the various players to each other. He read the wanker comment under his name and smiled. ‘Christ, what is this place — the clubhouse for the Nancy Drew Appreciation Society?’

‘What did I say about keeping it civil?’ Steve said.

Barrington raised his hands. ‘OK, OK, I’m on my best behaviour now.’

Claudia went up to the wall and studied our findings. She looked at me and smiled. ‘Nicely thought out, gentlemen.’

Barrington turned his disappointment on me. ‘Want to explain yesterday’s fiasco?’

‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but weren’t you running the show yesterday?’ Steve asked Barrington.

‘OK. Fair point. Tell me what happened.’

I outlined the day’s events, including how Dylan had marked the wheels with a dot of blue paint.

‘I can’t explain how they got the drugs out from under us,’ I said.

‘I can,’ Claudia said. ‘You didn’t discover a shipment going to ’olland. You discovered one that had just come into the UK and was unloaded before you left for ’olland.’

That put a different spin on things. ‘That means Rags picked up the shipment at some point during the Norisring race.’

‘Correct,’ Claudia said. ‘I think we ’ave a couple of options.’

‘We don’t have any options,’ Barrington said. ‘None of this matters now.’

Claudia blushed at being chopped off at the knees.

‘I think it does,’ I said.

‘Well, it doesn’t,’ Barrington said. ‘I’m here to tell you that you’re off the hook.’

‘What?’ I said.

‘We’ve shown our hand,’ Barrington said. ‘The traffickers know we’re on to Ragged Racing. They’ll find a new mule. This case is dead in the water.’

‘You’re walking away?’ I said. ‘You’re joking.’

‘No joke. I took a big risk and it didn’t work.’ He looked deferentially to Steve. ‘All I can do is regroup and try again.’

Claudia couldn’t look me in the eye and her gaze fell to the floor.

‘No,’ I said. ‘Look at what you’ve got.’

‘Enlighten me. What have I got?’

‘The drugs in the tyres. You can bust Rags and turn him in.’

‘What drugs? They’re gone. All I have is your word that they were ever there.’

‘I bet if you swept Ragged Racing’s workshop you’d find traces of cocaine.’

‘You’re probably right, but it wouldn’t give us any concrete evidence as to how much had passed through there or who was involved. A good lawyer would claim the residue was from personal consumption.’

‘Look, last night, Rags went to a factory owned by Andrew Gates in a panic. Now you’ve got an iron-clad connection between Andrew Gates, Rags and this drug operation.’

And possibly the reason for Jason’s murder. There was no way drug traffickers would let him live after he’d stumbled on to their operation. I wondered if Jason had suspected Ragged Racing was involved in the drug trade or if his need to dig into their affairs was triggered by something else and finding the drug trafficking was an unfortunate accident.

‘Did Gates show?’ Barrington asked.

I sighed. ‘No.’

‘That tells me everything. Gates is done with Rags. The Ragged Racing pipeline is capped. His no-show was a message telling Rags his services are no longer required.’

After all we’d done, this wasn’t right. As much as I wanted to be out from under Barrington’s operation, I didn’t want to walk away from the job now. We were so close to trapping these people and finding Jason’s killer. I couldn’t believe he was binning the operation.

‘Look, I understand your frustration because I’m feeling it too.’ Barrington’s tone had switched from antagonistic to consolatory. ‘I could have played it safe and wrapped up Rags a long time ago, but mules are a cheap win. You shut down one distribution line and another three replace it. I need the whole thing, from cartel to distributor, to really make a difference.’

I wondered how much heat Barrington was taking for this failure. It had to be a lot. He’d gone all in and gotten blown away by a better hand.

‘At least we now know Andrew Gates is part of this,’ Barrington said. ‘He was a piece of the puzzle we didn’t even know we were missing. We can regroup with Gates as the focus.’

Gates had everyone fooled on that score. Eddie Stores never knew Gates to deal in drugs and Gates had almost torn my head off for alluding to drug dealing within his organization. No wonder Jason didn’t trust his brother. ‘So that’s it?’

‘The battle was lost, but the war is still winnable. I’d just like to say thanks for your assistance and apologies to you and your friends for squeezing you so hard.’

‘What about Jason Gates’ murder?’ I asked.

‘What about it? It’s a police issue, not a Customs one. It’s down to them to solve, not me.’ Barrington looked to Claudia. ‘Let’s go.’

She remained seated next to Steve. ‘I need to go over a couple of things with Aidy. I’ll catch the train back into town,’ she said.

Barrington nodded and walked out. No one said a word until we heard the roar of a car engine.

Steve wiped the eraser across Gates’ name.

‘Put his name back,’ I said. ‘This isn’t over.’

Claudia hopped off the table and rested a hand on my shoulder. ‘I know you’ve been through a lot, Aidy, but it’s finished.’

‘For you, Barrington and Customs maybe, but nothing’s changed for me. Andrew Gates still wants to know who killed his brother and he expects me to find out.’

This was the perplexing part of all this. Andrew Gates was connected to the drug trafficking and Jason had stumbled upon it. So did Andrew have his brother killed? It was possible but not when you factored in my involvement. Gates wanted me to find Jason’s killer. If he was behind the murder, he had no reason to bring me in. That meant someone had killed Jason without his permission and he was using me to find out who’d crossed the line.

Steve nodded and rewrote Gates’ name on the board.

‘Aidy, what are you playing at?’ Claudia asked. ‘You don’t ’ave Customs’ protection now.’

I wasn’t sure I ever had it in the first place. ‘This case may be dead as far as Barrington’s concerned, but I say it isn’t. We still have plenty to work with. The question is, do you want to be a part of it?’

‘Aidy, I can’t go against orders.’

‘But you want to. You’re a good undercover agent, but you wear your emotions on your sleeve. I can see that you disagree with Barrington. You know there’s more mileage in this one.’

‘Regardless of ’ow I feel, I’m not going to blow my career for you.’

‘You don’t work for Customs. You’re only on loan to them. Are you telling me that you blowing off the British wouldn’t go down well with your bosses in France?’

Claudia grinned.

‘You know you want in,’ Steve said, providing an additional piece of arm twisting.

‘Tell me what you ’ave planned, then I’ll decide whether I’m in or not.’