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The hairs on Ryan’s arms had raised up. Which was he? Could he do it, pull a trigger, if the situation dictated it?
And so, today, thinking about that interesting lecture, it is doubly disappointing to be told by Jamie that not only is he being taken off response calls to do research but also that there are no spare offices for him: they have set a desk up in the cleaner’s cupboard for him, will that be okay? Ryan is happy to work in a cupboard, yes, but doing what?
He looks around it. It’s freezing. No heating, and it’s cold outside. Grey linoleum floor. Rows of shelving, a desk moved in temporarily with a letter rack on it. A corkboard and a mop bucket lean against the wall. That’s it. To be fair, they did remove the rest of the cleaning stuff.
Leo arrives in the cupboard, looking harassed. ‘God, how small is this room?’ he says. ‘None of the cells free?’ He carelessly grabs a sheet of paper sitting in the letter rack. It’s lined, and he turns it over to the plain side. ‘All right. Shut that door,’ he says to Jamie, who steps away from it.
Finally, Ryan is going to get an explanation. ‘So –’ he begins to say.
‘This is what we know.’ Leo talks over him in that way that he does. ‘There are two different organized-crime operations trading in this area, right? They overlap but, roughly speaking, one is nicking cars and one is importing drugs. The money from both is then funnelled.’ He dots a ballpoint pen on the paper, then draws an arrow upwards. ‘We have the names from surveillance of three suppliers who we haven’t yet arrested. But we’re looking for the importers – one rung above them.’
Ryan nods eagerly. ‘Yep, I understand all that.’
‘Right, anyway, next,’ Leo continues. ‘The gang consists of two arms – drugs and thefts. The drugs come in, but the same port workers turn a blind eye to what goes out, which is the other arm: stolen cars. Other men, we think’ – he draws a box away from the arrows, the pen dragging across the paper – ‘are stealing cars. They take them overnight, get them to the port, then they’re gone, before the owners are even awake, to the Middle East. They then launder the money. The two ops never cross.’
‘Obviously,’ Ryan says.
‘Is it – obvious?’
‘My brother …’
‘Yes, the brother,’ Leo says. ‘Tell us more about the brother.’ He sits forward, his eyes shining strangely.
‘I did disclose him to HR and vetting,’ Ryan says, panicking.
Leo makes an impatient gesture. ‘I know. I waved it through. I’m not suspicious. It’s helpful to us – your brother. Who better to work out the who’s who of a gang than someone who’s witnessed how these people operate?’
‘I see …’ Ryan says slowly.
‘So – would his ops be separate, too?’
‘Yes, always. Like, you’d never use a stolen car to import drugs. You’d get nicked immediately.’
‘Right,’ Leo says. ‘Right. Can you tell us more about him? He was quite a lot older than you – right? But same dad?’ Question after question after question.
‘Don’t mind Leo,’ Jamie says drily. ‘He has a one-track mind when he gets going.’
‘Answers, please,’ Leo says.
‘Yes,’ Ryan says. ‘Okay, well … a fair bit older than me, yes. He got mixed up in some stuff. I don’t know, we were quite … we were quite angry, I guess. He’s always – we both always – have had this ambition. But his became a bit misguided. He needed money, and he started dealing drugs.’
‘What drugs? Just so we can talk – you know. Skill sets.’
‘Well – he just … er, he just progressed in a totally clichéd way. Puff, then coke, then gear.’
‘Did he bring the gear home?’ Leo watches Ryan intently.
‘Sometimes.’
‘Did you see it?’
‘I mean, yeah,’ Ryan says, blinking.
‘If we had some gear now, how would you open it?’
‘Like a cracker,’ Ryan says, without even having to think about it.
‘Exactly!’ Leo exclaims. He thumps the table. Leo frightens Ryan. He might indeed be one of those crazy-genius types. Or he might just be mad.
