CHAPTER 43
When I got home after the shift, there was something that had been niggling my memory right from my first sight of that news report. I pulled it up on iPlayer on my telly, and paused it at one of the clearer views of the team and scanned along their faces. They were a right mix of types, some clearly more ‘physical’ than others.
There was a man at one end who simply epitomised the word ‘rumpled’, and at the other a near-match for ‘six foot and five inches’ Barry. In between were two generic pieces of beefcake cop-thug, a slightly older woman looking a little nervous, a sharply-dressed and immaculate blonde, who I just KNEW would be wearing heels just then, and a short-haired woman in a brown trouser suit with a classic thousand yard stare. Whatever she was seeing was in another county, from her expression.
It was one of the cop-thugs that had caught my eye, a powerfully-built man with a livid scar on his cheek. I knew him; not as a ‘type’, but as a person, as a fellow punter at the Smugglers. He would either be in the disco, or sat in the ‘snug’ with a pint and a book. I could remember him going off with another man now and again, but nothing regular. I could only suppose that he was behind the simple change in attitude that had led to something finally being done.
My doorbell rang, and I opened to find Dai Gould, in civvies, on the step, trying to avoid some of the drizzle by leaning under my little porch roof.
“Hi, Jen. Your control said you were home, so sorry if this is a bad time to call”
“Not at all, butt. Get in while you’re still at least partly dry. Cuppa?”
“Would be great, love”
He settled into an armchair as I did the business, and when I returned with two mugs he was staring at the TV screen.
“Special little team, that one. Want some background”
“Would be great, as you say”
“Right. The boys say you already know Sammy. He was CID, and his little tick-the-CV-box side job was community liaison”
“Yeah, he told me”
“He’s a very, very driven little man, and a right hard bastard. I don’t just mean in a ruck, I mean at his job. Doesn’t tolerate sloppiness, but he’s a bloody good manager. If you are willing to work, he’ll do anything to support you, unlike that backstabbing bastard that was after Adam.
“Now, Alun there’s a bit of a skiver, unless you know how to poke him. He was in CID with Sammy, so that’ll be a given. Ellen there I hardly know, ex Fraud I believe. The blonde bombshell is Candice, and when I say bombshell, think more unexploded bomb than the usual meaning. Plays the bimbo game well, but she’s another handy back-up in a ruck. She’s also good at the Ways and Means Act”
“The what?”
He laughed, much more relaxed than he had been all too recently.
“Copper’s term for ‘we’ll find a way and the means to deal with that if you give us enough time’. Sort of took over from the ‘I don’t like your face up against that wall you scrote’ Act”
I got the point.
“Now, the two lads there, one with the scar is Rhys, he was with the TSG, the tactical support group, and the other one you might want to say thank-you to”
“For?”
“That’s the Rob I was talking to about those arrests for… For that. He was the one who lifted Monroe. He was ARU, armed response unit. Firearms. And the last two, well, the big lad I don’t really know yet. Pretty sure he was local plod, somewhere west of here. The woman is one of my trainees, Diane. Bit, well, don’t want to be unkind, but I suspect she’s a bit on the spectrum. Amazing eye for detail, does free association stuff. Anyway, the team wasn’t set up by Sammy, but by an inspector on detachment from Dyfed-Powys, Elaine Powell. Now, here is the gossip”
“I already have some I am going to need to keep quiet, Dai”
“Ah. That’ll be Rhys, then. Scott let slip that he’s a Smugglers irregular, if you take my point. No, it’s the Inspector, and why she had to step down”
Another mouthful of tea.
“She’s on your bus, Jen, by the way, like Rhys there, but it’s her sister that’s the key. There’s also Paul Welby”
“Paul? Why?”
“You work closely together when you can, and he’s chums with that Debbie Wells. I had some more info that I wasn’t given, as you understand, and, well, I wanted to ask a little advice, or rather use you as a sounding board. Can’t involve the boys, and Marlene’s too unpredictable”
“What’s going on, Dai?”
“Wider net of rapists, just for starters. Possible—no. Probable corruption that I’ve started an enquiry into, via Sammy. Not saying anything more there, just asking for a little feed now and again, you’ll understand, or perhaps let Paul know things when needed. I can’t, being a sergeant in uniform”
“I see. What’s the story with that inspector, then?”
“Oh, she has a sister, does Elaine. Got beaten up badly by Joe Evans, one of the five that got nicked. She’s in hospital, recovering, and she gets a visit from two coppers, out of force area, who tell her her fortune, cause she’s actually a trans girl”
“Ah”
“Then Diane, in that team, aye? She’s in hospital, another rape, and she gets a visit from two coppers”
“Same two?”
“Exactly. And they were two of the others nicked in that Transit”
“Shit!”
“Yes, exactly, and that’s why both Elaine and Di have had to step away from the investigation. This is the other bit of my big favour ask. Di’s on another job for now, which is trying to find other victims of this lot, and I have had a little word, redolent of fluffy kittens, puppies and unicorns, that the lot who got nicked were also acting as a grooming gang. They have a flat somewhere that they were using, and at least two of the victims are with Debbie Wells now. Just keep your ears open for me, please, and steer anyone Diane’s way. There are limits to what I can do with info people give me, because there are loads of rules. If I can distance myself a little, it makes life a lot easier”
“Dai, no offence, but I don’t think that Elaine and the others are the only ones a bit driven”
“Oh, I do take your point, love. Those cunts nearly killed Omar, not to mention the other victims, and they were well on their way with Chris before that hard stop”
“Chris be the twink with them?”
“Yes. Called himself a ‘sacrificial goat’, apparently. Real courage, that lad. Anyway, I left Tom with a bottle of Talisker as a thank you, but neither the boys nor me had any idea how you like to relax, so here’s something for you”
It was an Amazon gift card, for forty pounds. He argued down my initial refusal until it was left sitting on my mantelpiece.
“There you go, Jen: your first bit of bribery and corruption”
I saw him off into the rain, stunned by the depth of shit he had revealed, and then spent some time on the net looking for that Elaine, starting with the Dyfed-Powys website, where she was listed as being responsible for some boring admin shit or other.
Powell, that was her name. Elaine Powell. The western Mail’s site brought up so many ‘Powell’ hits I nearly gave up, but then I found it, a typical transphobic hit piece.
In essence, an upstanding and absolutely straight man, a professional, had been sexually assaulted by a ferocious pervert, and slightly injured as he bravely fought ‘him’ off, oh, and here’s what ‘he’ does and where ‘he’ works, with a photo of the shop door in case you need more help, along with her former and current names, all in the spirit of legitimate public interest, naturally.’’ I did another search, on Joe Evans, and after a lot of work, due largely to his name being so bloody common, I found another little gem.
I finally drifted off to sleep that night wondering two things. What the fuck was up with Dai, breaking so many confidences? I suppose that was the moment I realised how much he loved his nephew, how close he was to cracking, and I gave a little non-prayer of thanks that Elaine Powell had clearly kicked enough arses hard enough to make a difference, and get a result.
I also wondered, having read more than one report on the incident, whether the men who had left Evans with a droopy eye had, at any time mentioned fluffy kittens, puppies or unicorns.
Just a thought.