Dani wasn’t taking any chances. Not this time. Luckily both McNair and Fairclough – from Organised Crime– had agreed. The two men who’d been found with Jane Doe’s body had already escaped the police once, had done so through the use of force and violence, and Dani was determined to make sure they wouldn’t get such a chance again. The operation had therefore taken a couple of hours longer to organise than it would otherwise have done, but they were now ready to go with a team that included half a dozen Tactical Response officers with their heavy duty semi-automatic assault weapons. At least that’s what Dani thought the guns were – she had zero experience of firearms herself.
Those six armed officers were in the back of a van a few cars away from Dani’s, all out of sight from the target location – the last known address of Silviu Grigore – on the next street along. At least for now. A plethora of uniforms were in other vehicles dotted around the vicinity. Just in case. Now they were assembled, they needed to act quickly, before suspicions were aroused. They’d had eyes on the terraced property in Willenhall, on the outskirts of Walsall, for the last thirty minutes, though had seen no one come and go and they had no idea how many people were inside.
Time to find out.
‘OK, let’s get this moving,’ Dani said into her radio.
Easton started the car and they followed the unmarked van with the armed officers as it took the right turn up ahead, onto the similarly quiet residential street.
‘Are you sure this is how you want to play it?’ Easton asked her.
She was damn sure. ‘I’m not changing my mind now.’
The street had double yellow lines all down one side, the opposite side was crammed with parked cars. The van pulled over onto the double yellows three houses away from number 51. Easton carried on past it, parking two houses up on the other side.
‘Everyone in position?’ Dani said.
She got a series of affirmatives, including from the van with four uniforms that was now stationed along the back alley behind the terraces should anyone make a run in that direction.
‘We could just send the big boys in straight off,’ Easton said, the engine still idling. ‘Surely it’s safer that way?’
‘We are the big boys,’ Dani said as she reached for the door.
She pushed it open and stepped out into the cold. She shut the door just as Easton switched off the engine. She didn’t wait for him as she moved towards the house. No delay now. Not with the two vehicles parked so obviously and obtrusively outside. Dani nodded over to the driver of the van. The armed officers would remain in the back until they got word. Dani’s decision. Everyone was ready to move, but she didn’t want guns on the street unless it was absolutely necessary. Perhaps it was more risky for her and Easton this way, but it was far less risky for pedestrians and everyone else.
Easton caught up with Dani just as she reached the door to 51. She took one more glance at the van before she rapped on the wood with her knuckles.
Then she waited.
And waited.
She looked left and right. Across the street. Passersby, people at windows, were already taking notice. It wasn’t hard to see that Dani, Easton, and the surreptitiously plonked car and van were out of place.
Dani knocked once more. Waited again. Nothing.
‘Anything at the back?’ Dani said into her radio.
‘Nothing.’
‘Shit. OK, get the big red key.’
The big red key. A sixteen-kilo handheld battering ram that could apply more than three tonnes of impact force. Seconds later two uniformed officers, riot helmets on, visors down, appeared from nowhere lugging the enforcer. Dani and Easton stepped back as the burlier of the two men swung the enforcer with venom and smashed it against the door lock. Wood splintered and the door opened first go. The other officer kicked the broken door further open then rushed inside, his friend close behind, Easton and Dani more tentatively following.
They needn’t have bothered being tentative. It only took a few moments to realise the house was empty.
Dani and Easton remained inside for little more than thirty minutes, by which point all of the officers, armed and unarmed, had moved on, except for a sole PC and the team of FSIs now working through the inside. Dani couldn’t shake her disappointment. Her frustration. Even her embarrassment. This felt like a recurring theme now. Get a lead. Follow lead. Run slap-bang into a solid concrete wall.
‘What do you reckon?’ Easton said to her as they traipsed back to the car.
‘Someone was definitely living there very recently,’ she said. ‘Furniture. Clothes. TV. Food. All in place.’
‘In-date milk still in the fridge.’
‘In-date, but it’s not even three days since Grigore and his pal attacked the police and fled the scene, so that doesn’t really tell us much.’
The scene in Brownhills. A few minutes’ drive from where they now were. It all fitted. So where was Grigore?
‘Maybe he never came back here,’ Easton said. ‘He’s gone on the run. Hiding. Maybe with Victor’s help.’
‘Possibly,’ Dani said. ‘Or maybe he’s not running from us at all. But from Victor.’
Was that a better answer? Potentially. After all, how did the saying go? An enemy of my enemy is my friend.
If they could find Grigore and his mystery accomplice…
‘Shall I drive?’ Easton asked.
‘Why not,’ Dani said. Her head was too busy to concentrate on the roads.
‘Where to?’
She really didn’t know. It was already six p.m. Already dark. But…
‘HQ first,’ Dani said.
Easton didn’t look particularly impressed with that idea, but he didn’t protest.
They’d only moved half a mile when Dani blurted, ‘Stop!’
Easton did exactly as he was asked. He thumped the brake and the wheels locked and the car rocked to a halt, sending both occupants shooting forwards in their seats. There was a couple of moments of awkward silence. Easton was wide-eyed, staring at Dani.
‘What?’ he said.
Dani laughed. ‘I didn’t mean for you to take me so literally. Pull over.’
Easton did so as the cars behind flashed and honked their annoyance at Easton’s erratic manoeuvre.
‘Think about it,’ Dani said, trying to get her thoughts into shape. ‘Grigore is on the run.’
‘You said that already.’
‘He’s hiding from his big boss, not the police. When he ran from us the other night, he probably thought we wouldn’t ID him. It’s only because of those fingerprint fragments. Secondary transfer that he might not even have thought about. The police aren’t his number one concern, even if he is going to be seriously wary of us.’
‘I’m not sure I get the difference.’
‘The difference is in how he reacts after he runs. When they were stopped in the van, they had nothing on them. No ID, no money, no phones. For the very reason that they were transporting a dead body. They were careful. Planned.’
‘And?’
‘And how on earth do you run away with absolutely nothing but the clothes you’re wearing?’
‘Are you going to tell me or do I really have to guess?’
‘I’ll tell you. You don’t.’
‘You don’t?’
‘You can’t. At least not without first coming home. Home, or wherever else it is you’ve stashed your money. Your phone. Whatever else.’
‘Emergency grab bag?’
‘Maybe. But there is another possibility too.’
‘There is?’
‘Let’s get back there.’
It took all of two minutes to return to the house. The FSIs were still busy doing their thing and Dani called Tariq over to give him the news.
‘You can get cleared up and out of here.’
‘We can? We’ve still got—’
‘I know, you’re not finished. But I’ll take the risk. We don’t need to go the whole hog—’
‘But I thought that was exactly what you told me we did need to do?’
‘Just trust me,’ Dani said.
Ten minutes later only Dani and Easton remained. Dani roamed. And found exactly what she was looking for. Loose floorboard. Under the sofa.
‘I think that’s called old school,’ Easton said as he and Dani looked down at the rolls of bank notes. The switched-off mobile phone – a burner, no doubt. The two passports. The picture in both was of the same bull-nosed man, though only one bore the name Silviu Grigore.
Dani looked up to Easton, trying not to appear smug.
‘Maybe he never came back at all,’ he said. ‘If his stuff is still here.’
‘No. He’s been back. I’d bet anything. And I think it’s even better than I first thought. He’s been back more than once.’
‘How on earth can you—’
‘Come with me.’
She headed out and into the kitchen at the back of the house.
‘Open the door,’ Dani said.
Easton walked over and pulled the handle on the back door but it was locked.
He frowned and looked around, searching for the key.
‘How did the FSIs get out earlier?’ he asked.
‘They had to walk around the road to the alley,’ Dani said. She pointed to the empty key hook above the work surface a yard from the door. ‘No key in the lock. No key on the hook. Because?’
Easton shrugged.
‘He’s been back already. And’s he’s now using the back door because he doesn’t trust coming in the front, in case Victor has eyes on this place.’
Easton looked really dubious now. Though it was obvious what Dani was saying, even if to him it was perhaps all too simple, and convenient.
‘That doesn’t mean he’s going to come back again,’ Easton said.
‘Maybe. Maybe not. But there’s one way to find out.’