NATIONAL TREASURE by Barry Faulkner (the best electronic book reader .txt) 📕

I pulled the envelope with the ransom note inside from my pocket and placed it in front of him. ‘I’d like the note inside to be checked for prints, and any prints run through the system.’

‘Why? And who’s the maiden in distress you mentioned on the phone?’

I sat on one of two empty chairs in front of his desk and ran through the whole case so far. When I’d finished, Clancy sat back and took a deep breath. ‘If you are getting involved in the circles James Randall moved in you need to be very careful, Ben – very careful indeed.’

He doesn’t usually call me Ben, so I must have hit on a raw nerve. I pressed further. ‘What happened to the drugs he was picking up?’

He shrugged. ‘You tell me, the official story is that his accomplice got away with them.’

‘Nothing about an accomplice in the news media reports.’

‘Randall wouldn’t have done a job like that on his own – he always had backup. In the level of dealing he was in, Ben, you needed it – threat level high was how I’d describe his life.’

‘Okay, so what happened – did the other guy get away with the load? Come on, Dick, a specialist AR marksmen unit wouldn’t let anybody get away.’

‘What are you suggesting?’

‘If there was an accomplice with Randall he was let go on purpose, with or without the load.’

‘Why?’

‘Because he was the one who gave the OC a heads-up on the drop time and place.’

‘And the load went with him?’

‘Maybe, or maybe not. It went with somebody.’

‘Careful, Ben.’ Clancy could see where I was going with this.

‘I know, I know, but Randall wouldn’t generally pick up a load himself, would he? So this one must have been special – a very big one, maybe? We know he moved a large quantity of charlie every week through his dealers, so perhaps this was a special one-off. Think about it, Dick, he wouldn’t have a plane come in and take a chance to drop just a couple of bricks, current price twenty-three grand a kilo, so if the drop was, say, fifty bricks, that’s a million plus – that’s a lot of dosh split four ways. Three is the usual number of marksmen in an OC Marksman Unit isn’t it, Dick? Plus the grass makes four?’

Clancy bristled. ‘Careful, Ben – if you start throwing those kind of accusations around, you could be in serious trouble. How does this fit in with the missing girl?’

‘I don’t know, but I’ll hazard a guess that whoever that load of coke came from hasn’t been paid and wants their money or the drugs back. They must think Randall was still married to Marcia Johnson and she’s part of his business and has the money stashed somewhere, or at least knows where it is. I can’t think of any other reason to take the girl.’

Clancy crossed his arms, body language for building a wall. He didn’t like me bringing his own men into play. ‘I’m not going to go there, Ben. I’m not opening the file and I’m not going to ask questions.’ He paused. ‘Officially, that is – unofficially I will take a look at the officers’ statements, but if this lady walks back in tomorrow and wonders what all the fuss is about, that file closes and you forget it, understood? I’ve enough on my plate without re-opening shut cases without a cast iron reason. Put the girl on a missing persons list – if anything nasty happens to her, questions will be asked as to why you didn’t. I’ll call you if any prints on the note match anyone on the database. Now bugger off and let me work.’

‘One last thing you might help me with.’

Clancy sighed and raised his eyes to the Heavens. ‘Go on.’

‘What happened with Randall’s gang after he was killed?’

‘What happened to them?’

‘Yes, did they split up or are they still going with another boss?’

‘There was only three of them, Ben. Randall was a wholesaler – bought from producers in bulk, split it, and sold it on to the postcode and county line gangs. He didn’t get mixed up in the street end of things.’

‘So what happened to the other two?’

‘Moved in with the Romanians.’

‘Romanians?’

‘Yes, most of Randall’s business was with them. They’re the biggest players now, Ben – when Romania joined the EU it gave them free travel into the UK, and the Romanian drug gangs took full advantage of it. Nasty people, violence is second nature to them. Now we are out of Europe hopefully it will stem the influx, but they’re very well-established here now. We have a unit monitoring them – clever people.’

A name came to my mind. ‘Alexandru Bogdan, is he still the top man?’ I’d had a couple of run ins with him over the last few years; nasty piece of work, blew up one of my client’s nightclubs when the client wouldn’t employ Bogdan’s security people on the door. If you’re dealing drugs and get your people on a nightclub door, they control who gets in and make sure only your dealers do. Big money changes hands between dealers and door staff; big, big money.

‘You know Bogdan?’ Clancy was surprised.

‘Oh yes, I know Alexandru Bogdan.’ I’d taken out the two goons he’d sent to teach me a lesson after the nightclub episode. I don’t take prisoners, and I don’t leave bodies lying around; no bodies means no evidence. I have a couple of contacts, twins in fact, who work at a south London crematorium and are open to a bit of after-hours overtime, and a few fifty pound notes in a brown envelope. I call them my magicians – why magicians? Because they make things disappear, especially bodies.

Clancy pursed his lips and