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It was a short conversation with Taffy later in the afternoon that led to his branching off onto his current research. He was sat in the office when Taff glanced over his shoulder and asked what he was up to. He told him, he saw no reason not to; it was a legit enquiry resulting from the Crime Stoppers info.
“Oh, right. What’s that?” Taff had asked, pointing at the screen. “Is that Pilgrim? I haven’t got my reading specs with me. Haulage firm, is it? Funny that, Tony MacMahon had a company with that name. That was haulage as well.” Taffy scratched his chin, thoughtfully. “Yep, I’m pretty certain. Anyway, you coming for a drink tomorrow night? It’s the Foetus’s birthday. Only a swifty mind, but unless someone buys him a pint he’s not likely to get served. I told him to grow a beard but, to be honest, I don’t think he can.” He smiled and wandered off into the corridor.
That’s why Gandalph was now sitting in his camper van on a motorway services car park, his car boot cash paid laptop working overtime as it processed what he was doing.
He’d discovered Pilgrim was indeed a former possession of the late Tony MacMahon. That and another called Hobo Transport. Both had been investigated by the FIU and Matrix and found, to their surprise, to be totally legit. Not so others, which were then subject to asset seizures. However, Pilgrim and Hobo were given the green light to be sold off by MacMahon’s widow, Lisa; hard as nails but gorgeous with it.
It surprised Gandalph that things had gone so smoothly. Ok, if they were legitimate ‘going concerns’ it made sense but the time scale of decisions made him wary. So he’d done a bit of delving, well, hacking to be more accurate, eating motorway service food and using their toilets all the while.
He’d done SB’s systems already and found an oblique mention of Revenue and Customs and a reference to the decision, a little indication of influence from an unnamed outside source. As far as he was concerned, having spent some time in the Branch it meant the Security Service or one of its affiliates at the very least. He was working quickly now. In MI5’s system, he knew if he hung around too long he’d never see a window without bars on it ever again.
In and out, it led him back to Lisa MacMahon’s sale of Pilgrim and Hobo and a man called Edward Warren, a man who didn’t appear to have the sort of money available for his purchase of the two firms. It didn’t take him long to figure out that Ed Warren was an anagram of Wanderer which in itself was a synonym of Nomad.
Just one more hack. This time it was Revenue and Customs and it told him all about Damon Spilbury’s game.