Cold Killers (13 page)

‘Yeah. We found her like that. Tony and I were just calling on her. We found her drunk. She’s a slut, a slag. With all her fine graces, she tried it on with Tony. I saw it
myself.’

Della shook her head, she vomited on the patio. She was swaying like a sick animal. On her knees. She puked several times.

Debbie looked at Sandra.

‘You go and I’ll tend to her.’

Tony started laughing. He picked Della up from under her armpits and he shook her in the air like a trophy.

‘Reckon she weighs eight stone, at two hundred degrees – what’s that? About ten hours?’ He laughed. Sandra started laughing hysterically.

‘Tony, tell your wife to go back to her own house. Tell her to mind her own business. I fancy a barbecue.’

‘Tony, don’t do this. This isn’t right. This is madness.’

‘Debbie, get the fuck out of here. Do as you’re told.’ Tony let Della drop and she tried to crawl forwards again.

‘Della is part of this family, you ought to leave her alone. Sandra? Come on, it’s not right, this. Tony, what are you doing?’

‘Just a little fun, Debbie.’ He nudged Della with his foot and she groaned. She was like a stick insect moving painfully slowly from one leaf to another. She wobbled on her
stick-thin limbs, hands and knees. She wobbled and shook as she inched her way forward.

Tony kicked her in her stomach and she exhaled in a groan and fought for breath as she rolled onto her side and curled up.

‘Tony!’

‘What, Debbie? You think this is bad? You see how my brother died?’

‘That had nothing to do with Della.’

‘Didn’t it?’ screamed Sandra. ‘She’s been a snake in the grass for so long, turning him against his own family, encouraging him to move away, turn his back on us
all. She’s the reason why Eddie did what he did and now we are facing a fucking Colombian death squad because of her.’

‘I don’t understand.’

‘No, you don’t, and you should be grateful for that. Go back to the villa, Debbie, and thank your lucky fucking stars you don’t understand the problems this woman has
caused.’

As Della heard the row starting between them she tried to get to her feet. She stumbled among the stunted old trees and the scrubby bushes out towards the wasteland and the almond grove. She
tried so hard to stay on her feet and move but it was as if her legs were spaghetti dropped into boiling water. They buckled beneath her. She crawled forwards, dragging herself away from the villa
and towards the stone hut she could see in the distance. Beneath her hands the ground softened. She heard voices again and heard her own voice, desperate, crying, pleading with her body to move.
But above her own voice she heard the sound of a child crying. She dug with her fingers into the soft earth that seemed to be collapsing beneath her. The voice called to her, a child in pain, a
child asking for help. It seemed to be coming from beneath her hands.

She dug as the pain shot deep into the bones in her fingers. She pulled away at the earth where she could get a hold and it seemed to give at her touch. She was getting close to the child now.
She felt the line of a body beneath her hands. She dug deeper as the child called louder and Della speeded up her efforts until her fingers traced the outline of a face in the earth. She worked
harder, to scrape away the earth, and the moonlight cast a shadow behind her as someone stood watching. Her fingers found the open eyes of Francisco.

Marco stood laughing behind her.

Carter had written three headings on the whiteboard beside the video screen.

An officer from the National Crime Agency, the Organised Crime Command division, had agreed to work with them and share their intelligence. At the officer’s request, they were gathered in
the video room. Fifteen chairs were laid out in front of a desk with a video screen behind. Five of the chairs were occupied. As well as Robbo, Willis, Carter and DCI Bowie, there was also Pam.
Carter had decided that the first words of the OCC officer should be heard by a limited few. Bowie had invited himself. Carter had wanted it to be an informal meeting in Robbo’s office but
that wasn’t what Ross, the OCC detective inspector, had wanted.

Carter introduced the tall, dark-haired man, who was wearing a smart, well-fitting, dark-blue suit and a patterned shirt, with pink tones. He looked like someone who loved buying clothes, who
would have a colour-coded wardrobe and who never put on more than an extra pound before taking action. His face had the smoothness of a younger man than his forty-two years. There was a feminine
quality to his long thin hands.

‘This is David Ross – he’s an inspector in the National Crime Agency, Organised Crime Command. Welcome, thanks for coming.’

‘Thank you and good morning.’ He spoke from his position behind the desk with an open laptop connected to the video screen behind him. His voice had a hint of Northern in it.

‘Thank you for inviting me in to work alongside you in your investigation into Eddie Butcher’s death. I have been given authority to share some relevant information with you.
I’d like to begin by pointing out that’ – he turned to face the whiteboard and Carter’s headings – ‘at this present time, I can probably only help with just one
of these scenarios. Tony Butcher has been in our sights for a long time. We have him under constant surveillance.’

A photo of Eddie Butcher with his brother Tony came on the screen behind him.

He turned to look at the screen.

‘By “we”, I mean that it is an international effort with the Spanish police.’

Ross flicked through some photos of the Butchers and Eddie with Harold.

‘Because we monitor their comings and goings, their activities, to a certain extent we also monitor Eddie Butcher. Eddie has not been of any real interest to the British police force for
ten years now. He has been building villas for ex-cons and has been paying his taxes so he’s left alone. But, when Eddie was with either one of his brothers, we took notice and we were also
alerted by the Spanish police when Eddie, or any of the family, were on the move.’

More close-up photos and aerial shots of the two villas came onto the screen. There were photos of Eddie and Harold outside Lineker’s Bar in Puerto Banús. There were photos of Eddie
at a black-tie charity golfers’ event.

‘Here we were taking photos of all those members attending what was, on the surface, a charity dinner, but in reality was a get-together of most of the drug barons and ex-cons living in
Marbella. There is no doubt Eddie mixed with these sort. He knew and liked them, but was he one? We have no intelligence linking him with any organised crime.

‘The surveillance on Eddie was low-key. So the information I’m about to share with you was collated as part of our ongoing investigation into Tony Butcher’s worryingly
expanding drugs empire and Harold “the Enforcer” Butcher. There’s a lot of footage, which I’ve tried to edit for you. Here is what we know of the last visit Eddie made to
the UK.’

Ross started a slideshow of images, which began with photos of Eddie at the wheel of his G wagon.

‘Here, Monday, October the 26th, Eddie is on his way to the airport with his wife Della in the passenger seat. They are on their way to the Málaga International Airport, where Eddie
boards a plane to the UK. Later we see Della arrive back home on her own.

‘But a day later, we have the real cause for our interest. This man, Marco Zapata, also leaves for the UK. He’s the illegitimate son of one of the cartel families. The Zapata are
rising stars in the distribution network. They’re taking over the distribution of much of the cocaine into America and now Europe. They don’t grow, they don’t manufacture: they
move
the cocaine.

‘We have hit a time when the Colombian cartels are fractured and, instead of the massive cartels we’ve seen in the past, smaller ones have taken on specific roles: distribution,
manufacture, America or Europe, et cetera. No one large cartel now rules them. They try to coexist. There are many more openings for entrepreneurs like Tony, but he will need the help of someone
like Marco. But Marco didn’t rise very far in the Zapata cartel. He started his career as a hitman, and he was not welcomed into the fold. There was sibling rivalry. So, he took off for
Europe on his own to try and muscle in on some bigger action, and there he found Tony. When Marco first arrived in Spain, he was linked to a shipment of arms that was traced to a Colombian death
squad unit. The arms included automatic rifles, grenades and an anti-tank missile. But Marco escaped prosecution and he’s been working for Tony for the last nine months. He’s been doing
essentially the same job as Harold does, but he’s been doing it in Spain.

‘We’ve been tracking Marco. He’s been to the UK and to Amsterdam several times. He was there, the Amsterdam police tell us, when a man was murdered, his throat cut, and he was
found floating in the canal. That man was believed to be the Mendez cartel’s, responsible for switching the cocaine from one container ship to another when it comes over from South America.
When it arrives in Spain, it’s up to another team of Tony’s to come up with ways of getting it to the UK. The Amsterdam police believe that this man’s death was down to Marco. He
was seen with him on the day he disappeared. But they don’t have enough to charge him with so they’ve agreed to shelve their investigation so that we can watch Marco and hopefully get
him some other way. We are not sure who Marco holds allegiance to.’

Ross paused to check his notes.

‘We believe Tony must have ordered the death of the man in Amsterdam. The Mendez cartel came looking for what had happened to the drugs shipment that Tony says never arrived, and what
happened to the money that Tony said he already paid to the dead man in Amsterdam. We are convinced that Eddie’s death has to do with this shift in power. We are thinking this was either a
case of mistaken identity or, more possible, revenge. The Mendez cartel may want to continue doing business with Tony, so they kill Eddie as a warning, as a punishment for transgressing. But we
know it can’t end there. This is a major problem that’s about to hit our streets, with two warring cartels playing out their feud in the East End and all the gangs flexing their muscles
ready for the fight. I know that we will work better as a team if we can come together on this. Any questions?’

‘What progress has been made with catching Tony Butcher?’ asked Robbo. ‘What is the position right now?’

‘We believe that Tony and Marco are setting up an operation together and looking to get rid of any opposition to the Zapata family taking over the Mendez routes. But who do they count as
opposition? Definitely any Mendez cartel members. That’s a lot of people involved to get rid of; it filters down to the young gangs in the capital’s streets. That’s been
Harold’s job in recent months. He’s recruiting from the young gangs. He’s promising them big rewards. We have undercover officers working here and in Spain. We are as close as we
can get to Tony.’

‘There was talk before of Tony getting off because of police corruption,’ said Willis.

‘Do you mean in Spain or here?’

‘Both.’

‘Well, there’s no doubt it’s a problem. It’s frustrating for the Spanish police. They come close to getting one of these barons like Tony and all their work comes to
nothing when the evidence is “accidentally” handed back to the suspect, or is lost. All we can do is keep trying to tighten the strings. As for corruption here, it’s still a
problem. We all know the police pay is not enough and we know any officer that goes undercover in an operation runs the risk of switching sides, of accepting pay-offs. We know all about blurred
lines but we are hopeful this time will be different. We have plenty to put Tony behind bars with, we have cocaine shipments that have come over which can be directly linked to Tony, but we
can’t get him until he decides to step back on British soil. For now, he causes havoc from the confines of his villa.’

‘Tony will be safely tucked away in his villa while he’ll have caused a war on the streets of the East End,’ said Robbo.

Willis raised her hand to ask another question.

‘I know that you are concerned with Tony but, if Eddie was trying to set himself up in cocaine distribution, could he have set up a deal all by himself with a cartel? Maybe he was
approached. Perhaps he double-crossed Tony.’

‘Possible,’ answered Ross, ‘then we need to consider a few things: was it with the Mendez family, who supply Tony, or someone else, i.e. the Zapata? Did Tony know about it and
authorise it and it went wrong, or did Tony know nothing about it? Why would he do it at this time? I would like to bring Harold and Laurence back in for an interview here at the
station.’

‘We will pick them up as soon as they get back on UK soil,’ said Carter.

‘The missing lawyer Francisco must have been kept alive long enough to witness changes to Eddie’s will. We should ask Laurence and Harold about him. Laurence might give something
away.’

Ross looked at his watch. ‘Okay, I need to get back. I would like to propose I go to Spain and interview Tony, under the guise of investigating a lead about his brother’s death. DS
Willis and I could interview the other members of his family out there and any of Eddie’s other close associates and friends. We can certainly decide if this villa theory is worth pursuing. I
think they will all want to be seen to cooperate if it’s the murder squad rather than NCA.

‘Okay, the sooner the better,’ Carter said, looking at Willis, who nodded her agreement.

Ross caught up with Willis as she stayed behind after the meeting.

‘Do you want to grab a drink? I’d like to go through things with you if we’re going to be working together.’

‘Okay . . .’ She hesitated. ‘Canteen all right for you?’