Free Driving into Darkness (DI Angus Henderson 2) by Iain Cameron Page B

other.’
    ‘I’m aware of this but I think if we can nick someone from the buying and selling gang, in time we’ll find the car thieves, or to put it another way, if we cut out their customer, they’ll have nowhere to go and be forced to stop their activities.’
    ‘I don’t think it’ll work.’
    ‘Putting your reservations to one side, what I want you to do now is look at all the ways the gang might be exporting stolen cars. I can think of a few, like shipping and personal export, but I’m sure there’s more. Track down whoever deals with the paperwork at Customs and at the main ports and see if we can get a look at their manifests or whatever they call them, and see if you can find any of our missing cars.’
    ‘I don’t imagine the car thieves are waiting around until they have ten or twenty cars,’ she said, ‘as it would give them any number of problems. If they’re moving a couple of cars at a time, it’ll make it much harder for us to track them.’
    ‘Did Tony tell you that too?’
    Her face reddened but he didn’t pursue it.
    ‘You might be right,’ he continued, ‘if we were dealing with a Ford Fiesta or Vauxhall Astra but a Porsche or a Ferrari is a much rarer beast, I don’t imagine you’ll find loads of them in containers heading out to Dubai or Beijing every day.’
    ‘Yes, but–’
    ‘Carol, stop bitching. We’re all agreed, what we’ve been doing so far has yielded nothing and it’s dispiriting for the troops and pissing off the top brass, but if you can find the merest chink of light on the selling side, everyone will be as happy as sand boys.’
    ‘I agree with you there. The lack of progress is getting everybody down.’
    ‘So, we’re in harmony but I suspect not yet singing from the same hymn sheet. Now go off and get this organised; use Phil Bentley. Also, do me a favour and make sure Sally Graham follows up on the chilled van sighting, I think Gerry Hobbs may have diverted her into interviewing witnesses on the Western Road assault, but I don’t want the one reasonable sighting we’ve got slipping from view.’
    ‘Right oh, sir,’ she said standing up. ‘I’ll get this sorted but I better get out of your way before you give me something else to do.’
    Henderson walked back to his desk and woke up his pc. He groaned when he saw all the emails received this morning, as he hadn’t looked since returning from Lewes. It included one from the Professional Standards guy who had attended this morning’s meeting with a summary of his conclusions, but one bit stood out.
    ‘…this should be regarded as a final warning. Any further transgressions of the Professional Code of Practice will be met with serious disciplinary action.’
    ‘And fuck you too,’ he said out loud.
    ‘I hope you’re not talking to me.’
    He looked up and saw with relief it wasn’t the Chief Constable or a visiting dignitary but DS Gerry Hobbs.
    ‘Sorry Gerry, I didn’t mean you but the sender of a snotty email I’ve just received.’
    ‘It makes me feel better if I file those away so I don’t have to look at them or if it really pisses me off, I delete the bloody thing.’
    ‘Is this the reason why you never answer any of my emails?’
    ‘Ouch, I fell for that one.’
    ‘Maybe I’ll start doing that or frame the bloody thing. So what brings you into the bad mood corner?’
    He sat on the chair on the other side of the desk as he didn’t like sitting at the little conference table, as it reminded him too much of interviews and difficult discussions, he said. After today, he had to agree.
    ‘I wanted to talk to you about our armed robbery in Hove.’
    ‘Did you see the story in The Argus ?’
    He shook his head.
    ‘Rob Tremain wrote something like, two women were injured when armed robbers attacked the Westchester Building Society in New Church Road and discharged their weapons. He made it sound like they were attacked and then shot by the robbers.’
    ‘Poetic license, I suspect as