Blunt opened the meeting, 'Let me introduce Debbie Flint, who is the final member of our little team. We are going to leave most of the formal interviews to Debbie. Not to put too fine a point on it she is one of the best interviewers I have come across....'
'I can't disagree with that' thought Leibnitz 'She sucked me dry last night. She knows everything about me BUT I know very little about her'.
Ahmed's face puckered in distaste, 'Thanks Blunt I am supposed to be 2ic. You bring in your ex bit on the side and tell us she'' be doing most of the interviews. Thanks a million for not discussing it with me or letting me know' he fumed inwardly. Blunt's words just floated over him..
'I am sure that you are all well aware that our arresting of the Russians, with German passports is on very tenuous ground. We need something and we need it quick. Last night I met with the CPS. I did not go into Darcy and Darcy but incidentally and interestingly your friend Hewett from Gribben & Gribben was there. I will brief you on my meeting but first have we got anything new?'
Flint spoke up, 'Apparently the bottle that Morski had in his room contained Gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid or GHB'
The others looked a little sceptical, especially Ahmed but she pressed on.
'It has been used and is being used increasingly as a date rape drug. It is preferred to Rohynpol because not only is it colourless and tasteless but it leaves less trace than Rohynpol. It's difficult to detect the stuff in a urine sample after a day. To be able to get it to register it has to be tested for within 8-12 hours of the victim taking it. Our floater was in the water and was dead for longer than that according to the pathologist. That is why it wasn't picked up.'
'So no link to Morski on this stuff then' interrupted Ahmed in a sarcastic tone designed to put Flint down.
'On the contrary' Flint responded with a hint of irritation, 'if you'll allow me to finish'.
'She's a lot sassier, got a harder edge since leaving the husband' opined Blunt. He wondered how Saeed would deal with Flint. He had no desire to interfere at the moment. If Saeed was to succeed as his 2ic then he would have to handle Flint. He had spoken to a friend in the Met who informed him that Saeed had a reputation as a lone wolf. Given his colour and the institutional racism at the heart of the Met Blunt felt that to survive Saeed had no option but to act in such a way. Anyway he turned back to Flint letting them know about GHB.
'GHB can be detected in the hair for months after it has been taken. Melanie here' she nodded towards the younger woman 'used her feminine wiles on old Snelling. He stayed on late to do the tests and gave them to us this morning.' She hesitated and then looked at the younger woman, 'Melanie what were the results?'
The younger woman was a little taken aback, flicked her hair back with her right hand. Again that little movement brought back memories for Blunt. Painful memories that he attempted to push into the furthest recesses of his mind.
'Traces of GHB were found in the floaters hair.'
'We do have a link then. Good work Melanie All we have to do now is to put him and Pidrik around the scene where the coastguard said the body could have been put into the water' said Ahmed praising up Leibnitz at the expense of Flint.
The others waited for him to continue.
'The coastguard said that given the tides it was possible that the body was put into the water between Cromer and South Repps. They also came back to me with a list of forty seven vessels that they reckon were within the rough area at the times in question. Unfortunately, all of them that night were out of European ports and sailing to various ports in the North of England. So we have to trace Morski's and Pidrik's movements from Friday evening to early Saturday morning. ' he concluded.
'Not so fast' interjected Blunt, 'That takes a lot of man hours. Hours we have not got. The question is are we falling into the trap of assuming that the two Russians with German passports are guilty? Who is not to say that it was not a punter or punters? That would maybe account for all the semen found in her.'
Ahmed shaped up as if to interrupt. However, he desisted when Blunt gave the police stop signal. 'We appear to have made that decision and now we are looking for every opportunity to support our conclusion. So let us try and work it another way. You are going to attempt to convince me about these two and I will act as devil's advocate. Steve, convince me that we even have a murder on our hands'
Cushion shifted uncomfortably on his seat
'Well, she's obviously had this GBH stuff....
'GHB' interrupted Flint
'GHB ' continued an irritated Cushion 'She worked in Pitt Street. We have the photographs that show Morski hitting her outside of the house and Morski has this GBH, GHB stuff.'
'Anything else?' asked Blunt
'Well she probably wanted to get away from being a pro, knew too much about the operation and so they had to kill her.' Cushion sat back.
'What evidence have you got that she actually lived there? The photographs do not prove that she lived there.' Cushion started to squirm in his seat 'What evidence have you got for your supposition that she wanted out etc.? None!! Debbie, how common is this GBH, sorry GHB stuff?'
'It is difficult to know how many date rape cases it has been used in. But it is sold in the smart shops in the Netherlands. It is used in Germany, Italy, France and other European countries to help those with sleeping disorders and as a pain killer in childbirth.' Flint answered.
'In other words it is readily available.'
Flint nodded in agreement.
'We have forensics crawling over Pitt Street and Morski and Pidrik's car. I imagine that they will take some time to come back to us. Unfortunately, it will probably not be before our twenty four hours are up. So that still leaves us with the problem of proving that the girl lived at Pitt Street. Ahmed, Steve' Blunt turned to the two males,
'You, kept watch at Pitt Street on Monday evening.'
Ahmed knew where this was going and felt like kicking himself. It was as if he had been gung-ho ever since he set foot in Norfolk. He now shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He noticed a wry smile on Flint's face. 'The cow' he thought. 'She's enjoying it. She's meant to be my subordinate!'.
'You took photographs of the people going into Pitt Street? Did you notice anyone you knew. Have you chased any of them up? Have you traced the number plates of the vehicles you photographed?'
Ahmed's face went a ruddy brown. Flint looked down, to hide her smile. Leibnitz looked on with interest. Cushion's face was blank.
'Unfortunately not. We wanted to get moving on the case as we felt that this team had something to prove.'
'Cut the bovine ordure' Blunt interjected sharply
'Point taken. Steve recognised a solicitor. If we get to her in the next hour we will have some proof to take into the interview room. We'll get onto tracing the plates right away. We'll then get to the owners straight away even if we have to work all night'
'Fair enough. Furthermore, you made the error and therefore I do not expect an overtime claim'
Cushion groaned
'You have a problem Steve?'
'Well, the union'
Blunt looked at him challengingly. Almost simultaneously, Cushion yelped in pain and stared at Ahmed who had kicked him on the shin.
'Good, let us continue. I have no doubt that we will establish that the girl lived and operated at Pitt Street. However, everything is still circumstantial at this moment in time.'
'Yes but we will be able to prosecute for running a brothel etc.' piped up Flint
'Scant reward for a team set up to combat people trafficking. Perhaps all we will have achieved is to warn off a major new trafficking player. Hardly a result to gain us plaudits from the powers that be!' A withering response from Blunt.
Gloom descended on the four sitting in front of Blunt. The silence was punctured by Cushion's stomach rumbling.
A nervous laugh followed from his colleagues.
'Right, be that as it may we must crack on' a more upbeat tone from the senior man,
'Where did those photographs come from? Who dropped them off?'
'I chased that up' Leibnitz jumped in.
'And?'
'After looking over the videos it appears that it was probably a motorcyclist. Unfortunately, he or she was wearing a helmet and gloves. The cameras picked up the motorcycle leaving. Unfortunately, the number plates had been obscured'
'Well done. It is not your fault that whoever they are did not want to be traced or identified'
Leibnitz blushed and flicked her hair back with her right hand.
'I would love to know who is watching the Russians and I would love to know what they know. However,.....'
Blunt noticed that Debbie Flint was becoming increasingly agitated.
'Debbie, is something bothering you?'
'Yes. Look I know that we are supposed to combat people trafficking. But we have a dead girl. I personally think that she has been murdered. We are talking about rights to arrest, whether it is worth arresting and all the rest. I just think that......'
He put up a hand to stop her in mid flow
'I know what you are saying and you and I need to talk after this meeting. OK'
A reluctant 'yes' followed.
'Debbie, I would like you and Melanie to interview the solicitor. See if you can get a signed statement regarding seeing the floater at Pitt Street. Get back here as quick as you can so that we can confront our three German Russians with it. Can I ask you a favour?'
'Depends' came the answer
'Can you get hold of your friend Beaumont in MI5 and ask him if he has anything on those three?'
'You're pushing it. He didn't score any brownie regarding the last time he helped us! In fact the opposite. He got caught up in some of the fall out. But, I'll try.' She didn't sound too hopeful..
'Ahmed, you sort out the questioning of the girls from the houses, especially Pitt Street. Take Steve with you. We need them to make statements that the girl lived at Pitt Street. And question them about Morski and Pidrik regarding the girl and the time frame that we are talking about. However, let us face it, those girls will probably try and give them an alibi.'
'No problem' answered Saied, 'You said that you would mention the CPS'
'Yes. I laid out what we had in front of the CPS and they informed me that for them to stand a chance of prosecuting our three friends they need proof that they are selling sex. Regarding the girl we have got nothing for bringing either a murder or manslaughter charge that will hold water. All we have is supposition and coincidence. Remember they have to be able to prove guilt 'beyond reasonable doubt'. A brief would drive a coach and horses through any case brought on what we have. Regarding the accountants we are in exactly the same position. We cannot prove that the accountant knew that Pidrik and Morski were laundering money and we cannot prove that they are using money from ill-gotten gains. We could make trouble for them by saying that we are impounding everything on 'suspicion'. However, we then have to prove it. If we do not then we could be sued. That would not do our budget much good. So, in a nutshell, we have expended, are expending and will expend a good deal of time effort and money running around over a floater. An exercise that will yield little of concrete value with respect to the objectives of this team. Let us carry on wasting time and money. Welcome to the brave new world of policing. Debbie you wanted a word'
The others left the room and Flint and Blunt occupied an awkward silence.
She broke it
John you engineered my coming here without my say so. When we spoke a couple of days ago I told you I would think about it. Instead I was ordered here! I know that you probably did it for the best of intentions but I don't like how you did it. Yes being busted back to the beat and all the shit I was being given did my head in but I wanted to sort it myself! The other thing is what's happened to you?'.
'How do you mean?' Her forcefulness had taken him aback
'You are talking about budgets, about how arresting those two scumbags may have lost us leads into trafficking gangs. At times you are beginning to sound like tickbox Bacon. We have got a dead girl. She probably has parents, a family somewhere. For all we know she may have children. You, we, seem to have lost sight of the fact that we are dealing with a human being. Someone, who laughed, smiled, cried. Someone, who hopefully had hopes and dreams. And we seem to have lost sight of all that, you especially. Is it now all down to statistics? Down to whether we can winkle out the big fish? Is it because with your promotion you've now turned into a tickbox? If it is I don't want to be part of this team, your team.'
'I have not changed Debbie but I have had to come to terms with modern day reality. There is not an infinite supply of money. Yes, we have to prioritise. Yes we have to go after the big fish. Putting the likes of Pidrik and Morski out of action achieves little, it is an inconvenience no more. It is similar to chopping off a tentacle. A new one quickly grows back. Chopping the head off. Putting the person at the top of the tree out of action that causes damage. Today too much of our time effort and money is spent pursuing the little guy. Why because it easy. It looks good. It massages the statistics and simultaneously assuages the public, the press and the powers that be! '
'So people like the girl are sacrificed? In the past you would have gone after those two. You would have wanted to put them down. You used to talk to me about justice.'
'The girl is not being sacrificed. Did you not hear what I said earlier?'
'Yes I did. I also heard the resentment in your voice about it.'
'God, she has changed. The catalyst was probably dumping her husband' thought Blunt
'Debbie. We are going to go after them. I want you as part of this team and I am pleased that you are here'
'I don't know whether I want to be part of it. I'll think about it and let you know tomorrow.'
'You will not forget Beaumont will you?' Blunt finished the conversation.