‘Gotcha.’
‘Big guy has four cups of coffee. We need to know who the other three are for before we grab him. Is he pushing to them, or is he simply buying coffee to take to friends?’ She had her doubts. You didn’t buy that much cocaine and hang on to it while you innocently doled out cups of coffee.
‘Agreed.’
Mason made it easy. If he was uncomfortable with her plan, he was straight enough to say so without preamble. She’d be left in no doubt.
She continued to scan the reflection in her car mirror as she thought out loud. ‘There are only two of us. Four of them.’
Mason and she had badges, what did those four have?
‘Three. Ryan just happened by. He was about to slip into The Coffee Shack without informing us of his whereabouts.’ Mason lowered his voice to a gruff London accent. ‘I fingered his collar, Sarge, and now the boy will, through his own machinations, not have that nice, tasty zinger of a latte he was about to order without having the decency to ask his colleagues if they’d like to participate in this daily ritual.’
A lick of guilt slid in sideways. She’d not asked the others. She’d done a sneaky drive-by. But Ryan was the youngest and newest member of the team. It was his duty to run around after them, not the other way around. She comforted herself with that thought.
DC Ryan Downey, still relatively new to the team, had been through harrowing times on a previous case where the finger of suspicion had jabbed at him. He still had a long way to go. Not that Jenna wasn’t confident in his ability and certainly his honesty and enthusiasm, and despite everything he’d been through none of that had been tarnished.
Ryan’s voice grumbled over Airwaves from where, she assumed, he sat in his own car. She’d not spotted him when she walked out, but then she hadn’t been looking for him. ‘I don’t see why you find it funny. Yours will be bloody cold by the time you get it anyway.’
Jenna snorted as a hot wash of relief flooded through her. She had her team. They stood a fighting chance if the big guy decided to protest. Despite his size, Mason and Ryan could take him.
Her mind whirled as she tossed together a quick risk assessment in her head. As a police officer, it was her duty to arrest the law-breakers. As an investigator, it was her obligation to follow the upline to its source.
She swivelled around to sweep her gaze over The Coffee Shack door, knowing Mason had his eye on the big guy.
‘Okay. Here’s what we’ll do. We know who the barista is. Shaun.’
‘Shaun, the barista,’ Mason repeated. ‘Helpful, but we could do with a little more than a first name.’
‘Shit. Shaun? Yeah.’ Ryan stumbled over his words. ‘Shaun Cunningham.’
Jenna snapped a grin in the mirror. That’s her boy. A natural. Always managed to pull something out of the hat.
Disappointment laced Ryan’s words. ‘He’s sound, he is. Or at least I thought he was.’ Ryan sucked in a breath. ‘He knows what I do.’
For clarification, Jenna spoke into the radio. ‘He knows you’re a police officer?’
‘Yes, Sarge. I speak with him most days.’
So did Jenna, but she’d never mentioned what she did for a living, nor had she snagged his last name. He’d never asked her profession, and she made it a policy not to tell people she barely knew. Judgement could be a funny thing. They’d either ask you to arrest someone for them or spit in your face.
She leaned back in her seat, made herself comfortable while she watched the big guy wrestle with the tray of cups as he opened his car door. ‘Did he see you?’
‘No, Mason grabbed me before I even reached the door.’
‘Okay.’ She blew out a breath before putting them in the picture. ‘Shaun will be back to his job where he works every day. We’ll see him again tomorrow and the next day and he’ll never suspect that we know anything.’
‘He’d never have risked the quick switcheroo in front of you if he’d had any clue who you were.’
‘Provided he doesn’t get wind of a problem with his downline because we have no idea how often big guy comes in to visit Shaun, the barista.’
‘Okay.’
‘So, I’ll ask the Duty Inspector to contact the Drug Squad. They can do what the hell they like with him then.’
As the big guy slid into his red BMW X4, Jenna stabbed the start button on her own car and reversed up ready to follow.
‘You don’t want to stop him here, Sarge?’ Excitement reverberated through Ryan’s voice.
‘We’d definitely run the risk of Shaun seeing. No, we’ll tail him. Did you see if there was anyone else in the car with him?’
‘Not that I can see.’ Mason pulled his car out of its parking space and nudged it forward, ready to turn left onto the one-way system around Telford town centre.
‘Nor me. Also, I’m curious as to who he’s about to meet up with.’
Jenna had no idea where Ryan was in his little Suzuki Swift, but he wasn’t far if he could call… There he was, just edging out of the drive-through on the right.
‘Mason, fall in behind the big guy. Ryan, you follow at a distance, if you need to swap and change do that.’
‘Received.’
‘Received.’
‘Right.’ Decision made, she rolled her car forward to follow the others at a discreet distance. ‘There are three others he’s going to meet. It could be we make a pretty hefty arrest if they’re all pushers. What’s the betting he won’t have bought the end-game contacts coffee.’
‘So, it could be more pushers.’
‘Yep, just further down the food chain. Let me contact Control.’
Jenna changed channel on Airwaves. ‘Control, this is Juliet Alpha 77, who is the DI on today?’
Silence behind the static filled the car as she pushed it into fourth gear and took off, keeping her distance as they approached the first roundabout and Mason slipped into the inside lane to go all the way around. Ryan followed, leaving Jenna to bring up the rear.
‘Juliet Alpha 77. DI Taylor’s on duty this morning.’
‘Excellent. Can you put me through?’ A wave of relief swept over her. She had backup, support she could rely on with a man who lived and breathed the job. His knowledge was second to none and his dedication unquestionable.
‘Jenna? What’s going on?’ His gruff tones over Airwaves only sought to reassure. With an open line, both Mason and Ryan were privy to the conversation.
‘DI Taylor, sir. We have a situation. I was in The Coffee Shack—’
An indelicate snort came over the air before his voice laced with sarcasm came back at her. ‘No doubt you were.’
‘Yes, sir. I was collecting myself and DC Ellis some coffee when I witnessed what I believe to be an exchange of Class A drugs in a quantity that concerned me considerably.’
‘Right.’ His brevity assured her he was listening.
‘I’m aware I have the major fire incident to deal with, but I can’t ignore this.’
‘Relax, Sergeant Morgan, we have everything in hand here for the time being. So far, there’s very little progress with the major incident that you need to concern yourself over. Debrief has been re-scheduled for 10:00 a.m.’ The crackle of the radio filled the air before DI Taylor cut back in. ‘What do you need, Sergeant?’