Whilst the oiling of wheels was the police minister’s responsibility, the grittier aspects of Sir Ben’s plan were down to Tony Evans, who always came up trumps.
Today, Sir Ben had decided to spend the day out with his enforcer to see for himself what was happening at the sharp end.
He’d been impressed that Arjun Sharma had managed to get the phone and drugs secreted in Darren’s cell so quickly, but that was the power he wielded across half the prison estate. Planting the calls to Jo Howe was also inspired. He was confident that they’d be able to bury the holier-than-thou Mr Howe sooner than he’d imagined.
The carers had arrived bright and early for a change and once he’d handed over to them, he stood by the front window like a child on Christmas Eve. Five minutes later a plain white van pulled up. Rather than waiting for Evans to press the intercom, Sir Ben stepped out and waved. He made his way across the drive, out of the gate and, in a second, he was in the passenger seat.
‘Really?’ said Tony as he eyed Sir Ben up and down. 260
‘What?’
‘I said dress casual. Stone slacks and a button-down pinstriped shirt is Sunday best where I come from.’
Ben huffed. ‘Well, it’ll have to do. Why aren’t you using a taxi, anyway?’
‘Mixing it up, mate.’ Tony pulled away and joined the gridlock heading for the city centre. ‘Where do you want to go first?’
Sir Ben checked his Rolex. ‘Take me to where the drugs are being sold.’
‘OK, but only from afar. You never know who’s watching so we’ll just do some drive pasts.’
‘Fine. I heard what happened last night.’
Tony glanced across. ‘Yes, silly man. He’ll not be bothering us for a little while.’
‘A little while? You mean he’s not dead?’
‘It’s not as easy as you think to top someone, especially someone like him. Two of my lads are nursing some nasty injuries after the way he fought back.’
Sir Ben let that go, but it worried him. Too many people were getting lucky and that smacked of sloppiness. Now was not the time to confront Tony about that though.
‘How did he get so close? If a lowly sergeant seemed to know where all the main men were, how do we know the higher-ups don’t?’
‘Don’t underestimate Sergeant Scott. Everything the Old Bill know about the drugs scene comes from him.’
Ben huffed.
As Tony crawled down Montpelier Road, the cause of at least some of the congestion was clear. A car had T-boned a bus at the Western Road junction. It appeared to have happened a while ago, and the one PC trying to both direct traffic and marshal the drivers and bus passengers out of the road looked like he’d rather be cleaning out the city sewers.
‘They need to get that shifted,’ Ben said idly.
‘Ain’t going to happen,’ said Tony as he navigated round the wreckage.
‘Eh?’ 261
‘A friend of a friend has the police contract for vehicle removal. Or should I say, had the contract.’
‘What are you on about?’
‘Some of us don’t need to be told. I know you’re trying to paralyse the police so I’ve been a bit proactive. He’s cancelled the contract so any cars, lorries or whatever the police want moving are staying put for now.’
Ben sniggered. ‘You diamond.’
‘Cheers. It’s not just breakdown trucks though. I’ve done the same with undertakers, cleaning contractors and vehicle hire. No fast-food place that wants to stay in business is serving the Old Bill for the foreseeable either. Oh, even the fire service and hospital are on a go-slow with anything police related.’
‘Blimey you’ve been busy. I just wish others would follow your lead.’
They joined the line of traffic on the coast road, turning left then taking the next left into Oriental Place.
‘Isn’t this where that drugs worker was done in?’
‘Yep, but that doesn’t seem to have put anyone off. Look.’
Ben peered up the road. At first he thought it was a protest. Blocking the road were forty, maybe fifty drawn and bedraggled men and women, desperately bustling around as if in a war zone awaiting an airdrop.
Tony checked his watch. ‘Watch this.’ Right on cue, two only slightly better-fed and marginally smarter men wandered up. The way the crowd reacted, they could have been film stars. ‘See, bloody desperate the lot of them. They can’t get enough of this gear. It’s like this all day. Come on, we better go.’
Ben nodded. ‘Just here?’
‘No, all over. I only brought you here as it was close by.’
‘I can see you’ve been busy. Just keep at it.’
‘For as long as you want, boss.’
For want of a distraction, Ben took out his phone. He glanced down and saw the BBC News app flashing its ‘Breaking News’ banner. 262Secure 8 cancels Sussex Police Custody Contract with immediate effect. He read it twice, before tapping it to open the article.
The BBC understands that security conglomerate Secure 8 has withdrawn from its multimillion-pound contract with Sussex Police with immediate effect, citing payment irregularities. Details are still unclear but, if confirmed, the implications are catastrophic. Secure 8 currently provide Sussex Police with all their custody centres and civilian jailers, as well as transport for prisoners to and from courts. This could mean the complete collapse of the force’s ability to handle and process prisoners, leaving the county at huge risk of an even greater crime wave than we’ve seen in recent years. Sussex Police have declined to comment. More follows.
A rush of adrenaline gushed through Sir Ben as he took in the news. ‘Seems you’re not the only one who’s been busy,’ he said as he thought of the policing minister. ‘Take me home. I’ve work to do.’
‘Can I give you some feedback?’ said Evans as he headed back to Sir Ben’s house.
‘If you must.’
‘You need to cut off the snake’s head.’
‘Eh?’
‘Well, we’ve all been busy getting at everyone and everything around her, but Mrs Howe is showing no sign of stopping.’
‘We’ve put her husband in prison. Surely that will have an effect if nothing else has.’
‘True, we’ve certainly given her a message but there is one thing we’ve not done. One part of her life that even she couldn’t make second fiddle to her job. It’s risky but I’m sure you don’t mind that.’
‘Go on.’
Tony spelt out his idea, step by step.
‘And you’ve got the person in place already?’ 263
‘Yep. For a couple of weeks now.’
‘How did you know we might need him?’
‘Ben, you pay me a lot of money to think ahead. There’s lots I’ve put in place that you don’t need to know about. Deniability, remember? All you need to know is that once you give me the green light it can happen.’
‘What, today?’
‘Yep, it’s all set up.’
This time it was Ben who left the silence. He didn’t scare easily but this was a terrifying prospect. If it went wrong, none of them would see daylight again.
He nodded. ‘Make it happen.’