The Rutland Connection by Michael Dane

Author:Michael Dane [Dane, Michael]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Thriller
Published: 2023-10-28T00:00:00+00:00

SIXTEEN

It was Monday morning. Lake’s first day ‘in the chair’. The phone rang. Not Lake’s phone, not McBride’s. The phone. Lake answered.

“Lake.”

“It’s Tommy Stone, from the Other Office. You’re in the chair this week, right?”

“Right?”

“Okay, here’s what we think we know about today.”

Lake opened the desk drawer and withdrew ‘Frank’s Book’. It was an ordinary A4-sized hardback exercise book, but to Lake’s knowledge this was the first time that anybody except McBride had ever handled it, let alone opened it. He selected a fresh page and wrote the date.

“I’m listening.”

When the call was finished Lake sat and considered what he had heard, what it might mean and, most importantly of all, what he was to tell Spencer. When he had finished making his notes in Frank’s book, he locked it back in the desk drawer and went to see his SIO.

“I’ve just been speaking to the Other Office,” he began. “Indications are that Pyke is travelling to Tilburg on Wednesday.”

“Indications?”

Lake considered for a moment.

“Strong indications. The Other Office are pretty confident.” He decided to push ahead before Spencer could interrupt again. “He will probably be travelling with Tango Four, Stephen Pettigrew, known as Maxi. They are likely to be staying overnight. We can check for the crossing and booking. It looks like he will be carrying cash out.”

“What will he be bringing back?”

“The Other Office thinks nothing.”

“Thinks?”

McBride had warned him about precisely this. He said nothing.

“So, he may have drugs?”

“All the indications are not.”

“Indications! I’m not sure that I can allow potentially hundreds of thousands of class A drugs into this country on the basis of ‘indications’!”

McBride had warned him about this too.

“As soon as we have the booking, we can send a team to the port. Keep our options open. We can have them pulled, follow them away, anything. We probably have forty-eight more hours to learn more. We don’t have to decide now.”

“Learn more! Learn more ‘indications’, you mean!”

Spencer was getting quite agitated and rather shrill. If this was what he was like discussing matters forty-eight hours in advance, what was he going to be like ‘in the heat of battle’?

“I’ll get to work on finding the booking, shall I?” Lake was looking for an excuse to leave before Spencer had a stupid idea.

“That should be underway already! Why isn’t it being done now?”

Lake sighed and then tried to disguise it. “I thought you would want to be brought up to date on the latest intel straight away. I’ll get on it now.” He hurried away. McBride’s instincts had been right. Howard Spencer MA (Oxon) was a bloody liability.

*

Howard Spencer would be the first to admit – in fact, it might even have been a source of pride – that he was not especially close to his team. He had arrived at Nottingham only a few months earlier as part of the office’s expansion and had not sought to establish close relationships with any of the people working for him. But now he was re-thinking his strategy, with two aims in mind, one professional, one personal.

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