Blunt sat looking out of the window contemplating his recent meeting with the Chief. One of the symptoms of depression is a kind of paranoia. You cannot see anything good in any situation. You are in the constant grip of an all pervading darkness. You see slights where none exist. You see plots against you where none exist! An optimist views things through rose tinted glasses. A depressive peers through shit tinted glasses! And the irony? Depressives have rose tinted highs! And boy when you get them they are HIGHS! It is what makes the lows bearable. However, he had enjoyed precious few highs over the last eighteen months. Perhaps he had come off the tablets too quickly? Should he be leading this team? Could he lead this team? Was the team being set up to fail? He chided himself mentally for succumbing to paranoia again. He turned back to contemplate the room.
He had to give it to Strumpshaw, reluctant though he was. The meeting room had been set up as an office. At one end of the conference table sat two computers a Mac and a PC together with two telephones and a fax machine. Several flip chart stands had also been set up around the room replete with boxes of marker pens.
He picked up Saeed's file.
Joined the Met straight from Brunel University. Performed well at Hendon and fast tracked not just because of colour but also for sheer ability. Mainly put into areas with a high Asian immigrant population. He had a very good conviction rate that applied fairly equally across all the racial groups Annual assessments consistently good although a regular theme was 'self-opinionated' , 'mouthy' and 'the occasional tendency to cut corners if he feels that the results merit it'. He could imagine how that translated into everyday life in the Met: an organisation not noted for its racial tolerance either internally or externally. All the information until 1990 was quite voluminous and meaty.
In 1990 it appeared that Saeed had been put forward for the Met's SO10 unit. Blunt's interest was now intensely aroused.
This was the special undercover unit that had been the brainchild of two, then, sergeants who had amassed a wealth of experience of undercover work. They had been highly critical of the haphazard fashion of most undercover work that had been conducted It involved placing officers in more danger than was necessary and resulted in intelligence that was of little if any use. In many instances the few prosecutions that resulted were only of low-grade criminals. In other words the viability of such operations as then organised was questionable.
The two sergeants argued that for such work to be viable it had to be properly planned and executed. They recommended that only certain types of people be recruited. People with the correct psychological profile. Once chosen hey were to be trained to understand and withstand the rigours of the undercover role. Also on the agenda was regular communication with all the other bodies, official and unofficial, who were involved in covert operations.
The view was that a good deal of information regarding criminal and other activities was intimately conjoined. Blunt had to agree. His experience on the Aktion fur Arbeit case had brought that home to him. That is why he had included covert operations in his plan for the new unit.
So, Saeed had volunteered or been recommended for SO10. Apparently, he had only spent three months with the unit. There were no assessments or anything of his time there. Only the stark phrase, 'Ahmed Saeed and the unit mutually agree that Sergeant Saeed will leave the unit forthwith'.
Saeed then spent three months on a straightforward desk job before going back to the front line. Still a good conviction rate but not as good as before SO10!
He needed to question the man on SO10. What had happened there? What had made Khan and Moyles push for him to be part of the unit? Just as importantly why had Strumpshaw agreed?
The more these thoughts swirled around his head the more his motivation and enthusiasm seeped away. God if he did not take care then the Black Dog would be back with a vengeance.
He wearily reached for Cushion's file.
It contained what he expected. A man who it appears made sergeant because of long service and resitting the exams on numerous occasions. The word 'plodder' sprang to mind when looking at the file. Everything about him smacked of 'average'. The one oddity was the internal affairs investigation into alleged corruption. Here the name 'Blunt' appeared. Blunt had raised the question of whether Cushion may be in the pay of the Norfolk gangmasters. A suspicion raised by the fact for a time the criminals always seemed to be one step ahead of them in the Aktion case.
The investigation had completely exonerated the Norfolk Detective.
He called down to Cushion's office and asked Saeed to come and see him.
The two men shook hands and eyed one another warily. Blunt waived the other towards a chair at the side of the table as opposed to one directly opposite. He had moved his own chair to the right so that there was no barrier between the two.
He picked up the file and noticed the other visibly tense.
'May I call you Ahmed?'
'Yes sir'
'Call me John. For what we hope to be doing together I think that being excessively formal will be a hindrance to freedom of thought rather than a help.'
'Interesting choice of words' thought the other. Most of his seniors had seemed afraid of freedom of thought'. He looked at Blunt and detected a weariness in him.
'Strumpshaw will have advised you that you are 2ic and will soon be promoted to Inspector. Ahmed I do not know what Strumpshaw may have told you about what we are looking to do here and what we are hoping to achieve. People trafficking in all its multifarious forms ranging from farming people for body parts to supplying children to paedophile groups is more and more becoming the mainstay of internationally organised criminal gangs. They are finding that it is easier and more profitable to deal in people rather than drugs. Having said that they do tend to indulge in both activities as well as a host of other criminal undertakings.
This part of the country became a centre for trafficking first of all because of the labour needed for the farming industry. Secondly, it has a large coastline where people can easily be landed. Thirdly, it has many remote properties where people can be held without anyone noticing or knowing. It was for these reasons that Aktion chose it for basing the majority of their illegal operations in the UK. They have now gone. Nature abhors a vacuum so others out there are no doubt rushing in to fill the void. Our job is to find out who they are and stop them. We have to accept that it will always be a losing battle . Crime is like the mythological Hydra. Chop off one of its heads and another will spring up. It is like a virus that manages to evolve and defeat the drugs that combatted the original virus. '
'That's a bit defeatist' interrupted Ahmed
'Not at all. It is being realistic. We can only hope to contain or to reduce things like trafficking. We will never ever eradicate it unless the nature of mankind changes. Now, sometimes we have to fight fire with fire......'
'Where is this beginning to go?' thought Saeed tensing. Images of being suspended by his bound ankles, blindfolded and naked. A harsh voice by his ear whispering that he was going to detach one of his testicles with the knife that was gently stroking his upper thigh and drawing blood. He knew that because he could feel it trickling into his groin.
His eyes took on a faraway look and he began to slip down in the chair.
'Are you Ok?' asked a concerned Blunt
The other slammed the door shut on his mental images and tried to pull himself together. Blunt had noticed the haunted look that monopolised the sergeant's facial expression and the defeatist posture that his body had assumed.
'Yes...yes....sorry I just felt a little odd. Must have been something I ate last night'.
'Ok, where was I?.....Yes, sometimes we have to fight fire with fire. That brings me to your file. Some great stuff there. Good detection rate, good prosecution rate. Good knowledge of the criminal law obviously, with your legal degree.....'
Saeed knew what was coming next. He concentrated hard on steeling himself so that those images, those memories of that cold cellar and the memories of the beatings he had endured, lying in a pool of his own vomit and blood., would go away.
'Are you sure you are ok?' Blunt again picked up on the emotional turbulence in the other that manifested itself in that haunted hunted look that he had witnessed a few moments ago.
'Yes, yes I am sure' stammered the other once more stretching every sinew of his mental strength to pull himself together. 'If this were an ordinary interview I'd be fucked!' thought Ahmed
'Good.' responded Blunt 'However, there is one thing in your file that interests me most and that is your time with SO10'. Again Blunt picked up on the inner turmoil and mental turbulence being experienced by the younger man.
'SO10 is what is giving him the jitters. Something happened there. That explains the brief entry in the file' thought Blunt
'Anyway we can talk about that some other time.' Blunt felt the relief emanate from Saeed although he tried not to show it and continued with something else he needed to know, 'How did you come to be here?'
Ahmed felt happier
'Orders were given to me on Saturday evening over the phone.to report to the Chief Constable on the Monday, yesterday morning. It came out of the blue. I asked why but got no answers. I was told that everything would become clear when I spoke to Strumpshaw.'
'Did it?' Blunt probed
'Kind of'
'Did you have a choice whether you joined this unit or not?'
'Where is this going? thought Ahmed 'he's got as much choice in all this as I have'
'Not really. But we have a great opportunity if we make it work' the none too convincing response
'Ah, someone striving to be an optimist' thought Blunt.
'What are your plans for the unit?' Saeed wanted to know
'I will go through those with you and Cushion'
'Cushion?' an incredulous interruption
'Yes Cushion. He is part of the team' a less than enthusiastic response that the other picked up 'As I said I will go through those with you both soon. However, I believe that you and Cushion have been looking at the Winterton beach body case' the other nodded 'After I have seen Cushion you can both update me on what is happening. We can then see where we will go with it. Ok?'
'yes sir, we have quite a bit of information'
Blunt noticed the use of 'sir' but said nothing as Saeed seemed calmer once they got off the SO10 topic.
'Can you ask Steve Cushion to come up'
'Yes sir' replied Saeed who departed the room without his usual jaunty gait.
He immediately headed for the gents and one of the stalls. He bent over the bowl and wretched his guts out.
'Jesus, is Blunt that bad?' exclaimed Cushion who had just come into the room.
Saeed quickly pulled himself together
'No, I think something that I had for breakfast might not have agreed with me. Anyway Blunt wants to see you now'
Blunt's meeting with Cushion was as strained as that with Saeed but for a different reason. Blunt had been responsible for the other man being reported to and investigated by Internal Affairs. In a frank exchange of views, that ensued when the senior officer stated that all questions of rank were to be put to one side, Cushion had stated that the other had nearly ruined his career.
Blunt apologised and stated that the other would be a valuable and valued member of the team. His knowledge of computers, the local area and his quiet tenacity would bring a much needed quality to the team and its efforts. When Cushion asked whether he had a choice he was informed that he probably didn't. Although he could ask if he wished. No he didn't and would give the new unit a whirl. It couldn't be any more boring than his current duties.
Cushion was not a man to bear grudges and preferred a quiet life that allowed him to just get on with the job. He was sufficiently assuaged by his now commanding officer's blandishments to leave the room reasonably contented.
Blunt's final words were that he and Saeed were to come back to the room in an hour's time and to provide a full report on the Winterton case. They were also to give thought as to the direction or directions in which the investigation was to move.