‘Young, impressionable… innocent. I see her all the time. She’s a nice girl.’
Pale skin turned ashen. Inclined to go with her DC’s impressions, convinced the girl had nothing to do with drugs, Jenna unclipped her radio from her belt.
As Mason opened his mouth to speak, Jenna raised her forefinger to halt him while she depressed the button on the Airwaves radio and patched herself through to the person she wanted. ‘DC Salter.’
‘Sarge. I hear you have a little activity going on. Would you like me and Wainwright to be a part of it?’
‘I certainly would.’
‘Tell me what you want, Sarge. There’s nothing much going on here until we get an update from NILO for the fire. It’s been postponed again until later this afternoon, I’m told, as the fire service are still unable to enter the building.’
Satisfied there was nothing further she could do on that case until she had an update, Jenna consoled herself with the fact that she could see this one through without breaking her stride.
Before that, she did want something from Salter and Wainwright.
‘Uniform are escorting four suspects back to the station.’ She glanced over just as Tanya turned a delicate shade of green and looked like she might just puke. If she were the uniform, she’d be wise to take a step back. She glanced down at her own coffee-splattered trousers and grimaced. Perhaps she wouldn’t.
Jenna turned her back and put a few more steps between herself and the general activity in the room. She spoke into Airwaves again. ‘They have a young girl, Tanya Boulding. Would you see what you can do to get her processed in a speedy manner? She’s young, frightened, and in my opinion most likely innocent.’ She’d been in the job long enough to get a sense of a situation and this was one young woman Jenna believed was harmless. Willing to take another opinion, Jenna was content to hand the responsibility over to the indubitably reliable team of Salter and Wainwright. ‘See what you think when you question her. I don’t think she has any knowledge, but I’ll leave her with you. We’ll catch up later.’
‘Sure, I’ll make my way down once I’ve had my coffee. That should give them enough time to process her.’
Finished with DC Salter, Jenna jerked her head in the direction of the exit for both Ryan and Mason to follow. She raised her hand to attract Chris’s attention. She would need the services of Blue for what she was about to do.
‘You and Blue fancy a trip out, Chris?’
With a mild grin, Chris gave the top of his Belgian Malinois’ head an affectionate scrub. ‘Aye, Blue will be looking forward to biting another arse or two. Won’t you, lad?’
Flanked by the three officers and the dog, Jenna made her way along the corridor and past the receptionist, who appeared to have developed a permanent state of surprise as a uniformed officer took out a notebook and leaned on the reception counter to write.
‘What we doing, Sarge?’
Jenna slipped her radio from where it bumped against her hip. ‘I need to have a word with Control, Mason. I think we can search Lamonte’s premises under a Section 18. I think this one’s got a lot more to do with drug pushing than just that little bundle.’ In reality, it had been a hefty bundle they’d extracted from him, all neatly bagged and in the safe hands of one of the uniforms. The bags in handsome boy’s pockets had been extracted but looked only enough for personal use.
‘What are you going to do about Shaun?’
‘His involvement’s the next step up. We don’t have time to conduct that kind of operation. We’d be stepping on Drug Squad’s toes.’
Ryan’s shoulders jiggled as he slouched in an effortless sulk. ‘We’re going to hand off a great bust.’
‘No, we’re going to let someone else do the long job, Ryan. We couldn’t ignore what went on this morning, but Shaun is much more complex. They’ll do obs on him for a while, arrest him and possibly turn him so they can infiltrate the bigger ring. That’s what they do. That’s their speciality, we’ll stick to ours.’
Mason shoulder-bumped Ryan. ‘We pursue our bird in the hand and leave the one in the bush to the Drug Squad. The majority of those packets were still on Lamonte, he only handed over enough for personal use, so we need to follow the little trail of white powder back to his place. He who hesitates is lost. Remember, continuity. I’d guess there was a street value exceeding a few thousand pounds if it were genuine.’
Chris nodded. ‘Blue says it was.’
‘Who are we to question his expertise?’ Jenna reached out a hand to touch the dog’s head and withdrew it quickly as his ears flicked backwards. Perhaps she wouldn’t. She lengthened her stride and took the stairs without pause. ‘Let’s go and see if Lamonte’s got any evidence at his home address.’
Ryan’s loose-legged stride kept up with hers. ‘He was a bit pissed off to see me there.’
She shrugged. ‘He knew you were a police officer. He’s the one taking the risk, Ryan.’
‘I thought he was a mate.’ There were undertones of sulk in Ryan’s voice.
A ripple of pity stole over her. ‘Unfortunately, mates in this business aren’t always genuine.’ She didn’t want her cynicism to rub off on him. Not just yet. ‘I don’t have many friends outside of the job, but those I do are die-hards.’ She wasn’t sure she had any friends outside of the job, but she didn’t want to sound pitiful. She’d think of someone.
Nobody came instantly to mind. Apart from one. Adrian. That relationship was too fresh yet to class him as a die-hard.
Fliss was her best friend, and if you could count a dog as a friend, she’d never find a human as faithful as Domino. Then there was Mason. He was more like a brother.
She grabbed her radio again and puffed out as she reached the bottom of the stairs. ‘Juliet Alpha 77 to Control. This is DS Jenna Morgan, could you put me through to DI Taylor?’
Already on stand-by, it took a brief moment for DI Taylor to respond.
‘DS Morgan.’
‘Sir, I'm taking DC Ellis and DC Downey to conduct a Section 18 on 33 Doseley Way, Mountside, the residence of Lamonte Junior.’ She raised her hand to acknowledge Chris and Blue as they headed towards the back exit of the building where the dog handlers’ van would be parked up. ‘We also have Sergeant Bennett and Blue in our company.’
‘In connection with the arrests, I assume?’
‘Yes, sir. Uniform are on their way back to the station with four suspects and a whole pack of evidence we’ve obtained.’
‘Reasonable suspicion?’
She nodded. ‘Yes, sir.’
‘Go ahead, Sergeant.’
Once again, she replied, ‘Yes, sir.’
‘Let me know if you need SOCO when you get there.’
As they swept towards their respective cars, Jenna barked out her instructions. ‘Mason, Ryan, meet me back at the station, we’ll drop off our own cars and pick up a police-issue vehicle instead of pitching up in three cars. Mason, you grab the keys when you get there. Meet us out front.’
‘Yes, Sarge.’ He came to a halt and turned back. ‘Do you want me to drive?’
Jenna slanted him a look, quirking her lips. ‘Yeah, okay, Mason, you can drive.’