‘That he’d been in prison?’
‘No, I believed that, but a crime he didn’t commit. If you let out all the prisoners in jail that said that, you wouldn’t have anyone left inside. He could be a violent bastard sometimes.’
‘You saw this violence?’
‘Once. We were drinking, minding our own business, when a drunk comes over and tries to pick a fight with Dave.’
‘Did Dave provoke him?’
‘No, he minded his own business. Anyway, the drunk is getting difficult; Dave’s ignoring him. The drunk grabs Dave by the collar, aiming to pull him around. Dave loses his temper and smashes the guy in the face. Ten minutes later, Dave’s as calm as a leaf, drinking a pint.’
It was six in the evening. Isaac did not intend to postpone the interview until the next day, but everyone was in need of food. Pinto was talking, and there were still more questions to ask. Isaac called a halt to the interview and ordered food for everyone: the standard diet for a long night in the police station, pizza.
Once everyone was fed, Isaac was back into his questioning. He could see that Pinto was falling asleep, the result of a good feed and a long day. Not that Isaac intended to ease off. This was his arena, somewhere he had succeeded many times in cracking the toughest nut. And from what he could see, Pinto was a very tough nut.
Vicenzo Pinto had no criminal record, apart from a succession of speeding fines and parking tickets, but no history of violence, and certainly nothing to suggest that he was any more than a minor functionary in the drug syndicate. The most the man had achieved in life was to work in a burger bar, and as for educational qualifications, there were none.
If the crime syndicate was as well organised as Pinto had said, then it needed smart people, and there was the man who had thrust the papers in front of Pinto to sign. If he was only another employee, then who was in charge? Who was Mr Big?
Isaac had grown weary of arresting the minor players, having them charged and convicted, only to know that the main culprit remained free and at large. In a previous case two of the murders had been government sanctioned, yet an abused woman resided in prison for the killing of another. She had had a reason to hate the man, not that it abrogated her from the crime, but there had been two other murders and those responsible for the assassinations had no doubt received a pat on the back for a job well done.
‘Let me come back to the syndicate,’ Isaac said. ‘You’ve told us that they are involved with drugs.’
‘That’s what I said.’
‘What type of drugs?’
‘Heroin, and lots of it. Sometimes cocaine.’
‘What was your function in the syndicate?’
‘It varied, but most times I was transporting it from one place to the next.’
‘In the UK?’
‘Mainly, but sometimes in France.’
‘Let us start with France. We are aware that you made three trips there in the last six months.’
‘If I tell you, they’ll kill me.’
‘And if you don’t, they will anyway. Your only hope is to place your trust in us.’
Katrina Hatcher leant over towards her client. ‘The DCI is right.’
‘I know that,’ Pinto said.
‘If you work with us, we’ll ensure that your prison sentence will be lenient.’
‘You want me to grass?’
‘For a man with no criminal record, you’ve certainly picked up the lingo.’
‘That’s Dave. He had a colourful turn of phrase. No doubt from all the time he spent in prison.’
‘How long was that?’
‘He said eight years, but I don’t know if it was true. He said he was going to get the bastard who put him there.’
‘What did he mean? The man who stitched him up, the police officer who arrested him, or the judge who put him in jail?’
‘After a few pints, he would talk, but it was never very much. I’ve no idea, and that’s the honest truth.’
‘Let’s return to France,’ Isaac said.
‘I would go there, pick up a truck and bring it back.’
‘And the trucks were loaded with drugs?’
‘Well hidden.’
‘Customs checks on entering England?’
‘They were only interested in case we’d picked up some Afghans in Calais. Anyway, if they had stripped the vehicles down, they would have been hard pushed to find anything.’
‘Why?’
‘I saw how they did it once, a welded compartment inside the transmission housing. Also, they had welded on extra parts that looked like the chassis. It was dead easy.’
‘How much would you carry?’
‘At least fifty kilos of heroin, as well as cocaine,’ Pinto said.
‘That’s five million pounds on the street,’ Larry, who had left the questioning since they had resumed to Isaac, said.
‘Each trip had that much heroin?’ Isaac asked.
‘I only saw what they took out that one time.’
‘If you made three trips, that’s close to fifteen million pounds.’
‘Maybe it is, but I was only concerned about the money I owed them and my life. I knew they were vicious.’
‘How? Apart from threatening you when you owed money due to your poker playing, you’ve not mentioned any other violence.’
‘They were always threatening.’
‘But you and Dave still decided to cheat them?’
‘We were desperate. Dave had driven a truck over from France. He phoned me up from Dover, let me know that one of their hiding places was visible, and would I be interested in going halves with him.’
‘You agreed?’
‘I needed the money. I wanted to go back to what I was doing before.’
‘Flipping burgers?’ Larry said.
‘With the drugs we took, there was enough to buy my own business,
