The good news, as far as the local authority was concerned, was that the squat was now empty. Dillon had contacted the emergency out of hours number and explained that, if they wanted to reclaim the premises, they had until the search and record photography was completed to send someone along to secure it. A boarding up team had arrived just as the officers were getting ready to release the scene, and the council had finally taken possession of the condemned building.
Jack suspected that the neighbours would be overjoyed when they awoke and found out that the brothel had been closed down.
Jack checked his watch. He would give it another half-hour before calling George Holland.
To his surprise, there was a knock on his office door. “Come in” he called, wearily.
Reggie Parker entered the room. “Morning, guv. Heard things got a bit hectic after I went home last night?”
Tyler grunted. “You could say that,” he said, breaking into a yawn. “What can I do for you Reg?”
“Got the latest on the 777 and 321 phones,” Parker said, waving a sheet of paper in the air.
Tyler groaned and then reached for a pen. “Have a seat.”
“So,” Reggie began, checking his notes after he’d made himself comfortable, “after going walkabouts during the evening, 777 returned to the same cell it bedded down at the night before, but 321 dropped off the grid at about eight o’clock last night, either because it was deliberately switched off or because the battery died. The good news is that both phones are active again this morning, and they are together. It means Angela and mysterious doctor –”
“His name’s Deontay Garston,” Jack interrupted.
“What?” Reggie looked confused. “How do we know his name all of a sudden?”
Jack allowed himself a brief smile. He was too tired for anything more. “One of the girls at the house we raided last night told us.”
“Cool,” Reggie said, looking suitably impressed. “Does Deano know yet?
Jack nodded. He’d told Dean the moment he’d walked through the door some twenty minutes ago.
“Anything else, Reggie? Only I’ve got a lot to do before the eight o’clock team meeting.”
Parker shook his head and stood up. “That’s it from me,” he said. And then a thought occurred to him. “Guv, have you been home since the last time I saw you?”
Tyler smiled wanly. “Nope. You know me, Reggie. When a new job breaks, this becomes my home.”
“Thought that might be the case,” Reggie said, “Because you look like shit.”
Jack couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, I know. I’m gonna finish up this entry, phone the DCS and then grab a shower to freshen myself up.”
Reggie shook his head in despair. “You’re gonna burn yourself out, you know, carrying on like this.”
Jack shrugged. “It’s only for a day or so, then I’ll have a day off and sleep to my heart’s content.”
On his way out of Jack’s office, Reggie passed Dillon coming the other way. Despite only having had four hours of sleep on his office floor, he looked fresh and ready for another day of manic action.
“Morning guv,” Parker said.
“And a fine morning it is too,” Dillon beamed, closing Jack’s door behind him.
Jack cringed. Oh God, he thought, Dillon’s in one of his ‘the morning’s the best time of the day’ moods… “Dill,” he warned, “be gentle with me. I’m feeling fragile.”
Dillon looked confused and then angry. “I thought you were gonna grab some shut-eye when we got back? Please don’t tell me you’ve been sitting here for the last four hours, writing that stupid log up?”
“It won’t write itself, will it?” Tyler said, irritably. “And I’m not going to have the time to play catch up today, not when we’ve got so much going on.”
“Jack,” Dillon said, softly, “go and have a shower and a bit of breakfast, then we can divide the workload and get through it together.”
“I need to finish –”
Dillon’s tone became firm. “You look knackered, Jack. You clearly need a break. Don’t argue with me, just go and take a shower and have some breakfast.”
Tyler opened his mouth to protest, realised that Dillon was right, and tossed his pen onto his desk. “Fine,” he said. “I’ll be back in time for the meeting.” With that, he stood up, snatched his jacket from the back of his chair, and walked out.
◆◆◆
The team meeting started promptly at 8 a.m. in Andy Quinlan’s main office. Jack was feeling much better, having showered and shaved. He had also grabbed a bacon sandwich from the local café, where Dillon had dragged him for breakfast.
He’d phoned Holland from the café to update him on where they were, and he’d requested additional resources to help out with all the searches, which Holland had reluctantly promised he would try to provide, not that he had many to spare with the Commissioner pressuring him to plough everything he had into tracking down Craig Masters.
Tyler started off by giving them a rundown on what had happened overnight and outlined the massive amount of work they would have to get through before the end of the day.
“DI Keating’s preparing the briefing document for all the prem-searches,” Jack said. “Mr Holland has promised to provide us with enough additional officers to enable us to hit each address simultaneously, and we will keep the skinheads incommunicado until we have control of all the addresses.”
A Superintendent’s authority was required to hold a detainee incommunicado, and the authorising officer had to have reasonable grounds for believing that informing anyone of their arrest could lead to interference with evidence
