Nick Oldham - The Last Big Job

Loz grassed everything. It was obvious he was a man bearing a huge grudge against Crane. He blew apart Crane’s drug operation, revealing that many young travel company representatives were on the payroll, eager to supplement their meagre earnings by identifying potential mules amongst their clients. Loz openly admitted his part in the operation, that of actually employing the mules, packing their cases for them with gear and paying them. He said he had employed Cheryl Jones and packed her case for her. He gave the names of the drugs suppliers from whom Crane bought his stocks, gave details of other names, dates and places which Henry and Danny enthusiastically noted down. He told them of Don Smith’s role of distributor in the UK and gave a list of further contacts in England. He also told how angry Crane had been to lose the?50,000 worth of drugs carried by Cheryl Jones; how he had punished Loz by feeding his hand to a lion (so there is a lion in Los Cristianos, Danny had thought at that point. My ears weren’t playing tricks with me). And how Crane had gone to England to exact revenge which would give out a clear message to other mules who might be stupid, by killing Cheryl and her boyfriend. He provided Henry with some bank account details, too.

He had told Henry how annoyed Crane had been on his more recent return from the UK when Loz had bragged to him about ‘sorting out’ the woman detective. Henry wrote down the exact words Loz said Crane had uttered about the M6 robbery, the deaths associated with it and his admissions about killing Cheryl, Spencer and another man — Malcolm Fitch.

Loz did mention Barney Gillrow, but did not really have as much information about him as he had initially maintained.

On the third day of their stay in Tenerife, Henry formally requested the assistance of the local police to arrest Billy Crane who was believed to be residing in his villa on La Gomera, after which extradition proceedings would be instituted. The basis of his request — made through the necessary legal channels — was on Crane’s involvement in the robbery and the murders he had committed. He didn’t tell the locals too much about Crane’s Tenerife-based drugs business, because they might have wanted to deal with that first, which would have slowed things up considerably. Henry wanted to get Crane back to the UK as quickly as possible.

Nor did he reveal Loz’s admissions about his own involvement in Crane’s drug operations from the island as this would have complicated matters. Henry had decided to tell the Spaniards about this further down the line.

In the meantime, the debriefing of Loz would continue and Henry and Danny decided to take the opportunity to visit Barney Gillrow.

It was 10 a.m. as the two lovers, two cops, strolled arm-in-arm along the Los Cristianos sea-front towards Playa de las Americas. They had a noon meeting arranged with Loz, so had a couple of free hours to put the frighteners up Gillrow. As they strolled along, Danny pointed out the sights — such as the spot where she was indecently assaulted on the beach by Loz. She laughed about it now, though she could not warm to Loz who had shown no remorse or offered an apology.

They dawdled along, actually relishing the approaches of the timeshare touts who thought they were a married couple. Thoughts of a difficult future were a long way from their minds. For the time being, they were revelling in the present, both never happier in this false, transient environment in which they were floating at the moment, which seemed a million miles away from reality.

‘ Ah well, here we go,’ Henry said outside the door to Gillrow’s apartment. He rolled his shoulders and slicked back his hair, then knocked.

Gillrow answered and was plainly shocked to see Danny standing there. He squinted at Henry with a faint glimmer of recognition.

‘ I’m Henry Christie, now a Detective Inspector. You might remember me as a PC. You’ve already made the acquaintance of DS Furness.’

‘ I have nothing further to say,’ Gillrow snapped.

Henry heaved a sigh and gave the ex-detective the hard stare without saying anything. Gillrow held the look for a few moments, remembering how many times he had given it to guilty felons himself, then cracked. He swallowed. ‘Come in.’

He was alone in the apartment, his wife was out shopping. As before, he motioned them towards the balcony for a discussion, except this time no drinks were offered.

Henry said, ‘I’d like to go back to 1986, please.’

Lawrence Brayfield — Loz — was once again on the rooftop of Uncle B’s English Bar and Disco, sitting underneath a sunshade. It was a position to which he gravitated regularly these days. In the cage at the far end of the flat roof, Nero lounged indolently in the hot sun, rolling on his back, licking himself with his muscular rasping tongue. The cage floor, uncleaned for four days, was a mess of urine and faeces. Nero was beginning to show signs of neglect. His stench — overpowering at the best of times — was dreadful.

Loz was happy with the way things were panning out. He had already received two grand of the promised initial three and was certain he would get the final instalment later that day. By the end of tomorrow he expected to be talking to the Witness Protection Officer about his future: living somewhere in Southern England, with a new identity and everything that went with it. There was no doubt he would need all the protection the cops could offer because Billy Crane — vindictive, violent, vengeful bastard that he was, a man who never let a grudge die — would either want to kill him personally or contract someone to do it for him. Loz knew his life would be under threat for as long as Crane lived, but he was prepared for it and had worked out, in his mind, that the risk was worth taking. His eyes were fixed firmly on that two hundred thousand pounds reward money.

But until the cops arrested Crane, everything had to go on as normal. Crane had eyes and ears everywhere and if he smelled a rat, he would bolt — and then Loz would very definitely have a problem. He had to keep things ticking over — which included looking after Nero.

Loz crossed to the cage and regarded the big cat. Then he looked down at the hand Nero had chewed on. The cops had arranged some proper medical treatment and it was improving, smelling less, feeling more like a real hand. This, however, did not make Loz feel any less animosity towards Nero. He still hated the beast with venom.

His last act of betrayal towards Crane would be to feed Nero with poisoned horsemeat, sit back with a long beer and enjoy watching the creature writhe agonisingly to a slow death in its own shit and piss.

The expression on Loz’s face, as he thought about this, was pure evil.

‘ In your wildest dreams, Barney, could you ever have imagined us not coming back to see you after the way you warned DS Furness off?’

Gillrow stayed numb for a few moments, then said, ‘I don’t know what you mean.’

‘ Let me put it this way,’ Henry said in a tone of voice that would let Gillrow understand the message behind the words — i.e. that he knew everything. ‘We know you tried to see Billy Crane after Danny visited you, and we know that stupid henchman of his tried to warn her off and at the same time indecently assaulted her and tried to rape her.’

Gillrow’s head fell at this. ‘Oh, God,’ he uttered desperately.

‘ We are in the process of dismantling Crane’s organisation, ripping it apart bit by bit — which means going for an historical perspective as well. If that means ripping you apart with it, Barney, then I’ll be more than pleased to do it, so I think you should consider long and hard about helping yourself here, because no one else will- especially Billy Crane.’