Devil's Crossroads: No-one said it would be easy. Read online

  Devil's Crossroads

  No-one said it would be easy.

  Gabriel Lee

  Copyright © 2021 Kevin McBride

  All rights reserved

  The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  ISBN-13: 9798509489464

  ISBN-10: 1477123456

  Cover design by: Art Painter

  Library of Congress Control Number: 2018675309

  Printed in the United States of America

  I dedicate this book, to the hard working Police Officers of all ranks and their support officers who have a never ending and thankless task of keeping law and order Worldwide. They are regularly critcised and seldom praised, they perform their duties with pride. No-one said it would be easy.

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Introduction

  forward

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  chapter 12

  chapter 13

  chapter 14

  chapter 15

  chapter 16

  chapter 17

  chapter 18

  chapter 19

  chapter 20

  chapter 21

  chapter 22

  chapter 23

  chapter 24

  chapter 25

  chapter 26

  chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  chapter 29

  chapter 30

  chapter 31

  About The Author

  Books In This Series

  Books By This Author

  Introduction

  Steve Bond, a Detective Sergeant in the Newcastle Upon Tyne Crime Team, was sent to Panama to investigate the murder of Filipe Lopez, a young man from the town. His parents had been sent a Whatsapp video of his murder.

  It was the start of a series of events, that culminated with the police the UK.,Panama, USA, and Venezuela working together to solve sevaral murders and large scale drug dealing.

  It started his interest with working with other officers Worldwide, when the Crime Team was closed, he took the option to join The NCA National Crime Agency to realise his ambition.

  forward

  Wednesday 16th June 2016

  It was just over two weeks since Steve Bond had returned from Panama to Newcastle after the murder investigation of Filipe Lopez. In that time a great deal of water had passed under the Tyne bridge, bringing so many changes to the Newcastle Crime team. The station where the team was based was closing in two weeks and the crime team was to be a centralised crime team covering the force area, each individual officer had to re-apply for a new post of their choice. Superintendent Colin Tinkler had updated each officers’ current appraisals and had held one to one discussion with each one to give advice, guidance and support to the group he knew so well.

  Detective Sergeant Andy Bacon together with officers, Lauren, Alan and Billy were applying for similar posts in the newly formed teams and the boss was supporting their applications. Walter and his team were being centralised as the new Digital Forensic department in another office not too far outside the city centre. Sarah as a non-police officer, had been offered a role in the Domestic Abuse department as an administrator or given the choice of redundancy, Sarah was being non-committal to anyone on her choices, although it was obvious that the role offered did not suit her and would not be her choice. Steve had already committed himself to join the National Crime Agency and had backing from the Superintendent and officers in the NCA, his application was in process and was expected to be approved. The Super was being moved, for reasons known to others, from the crime teams to an Area Command.

  It was fair to say that the team members were not surprised at the move, as cuts had been made everywhere, the job had changed.

  It was 10:45 when the Super, Steve and Sarah converged on to Platform 2 at Newcastle Central Station for the train journey to London, all three had an overnight bag, leather document case and a brown bag containing supplies purchased from Greggs Bakers across the road from the station. They were dressed casually but smart for the meeting later in the afternoon at NCS head office. The train was on time, they boarded the second-class carriages and made their way to the prebooked table seats, the gentlemen giving Sarah the choice of seats, the overnight bags were placed on the luggage rack above their heads but the document folders were placed on the table. The journey would last two hours fifty, so there was plenty of time for chat, coffee, steak bites, pasties, stottie sandwiches and custard slices.

  They were heading for the debrief on the incidents arising from the murder of Filipe, now established to have been committed on Margarita Island, the murder of Martin Chapman, the police liaison officer in Panama, the murder of Borja Sanchez in the Hilton hotel in Panama City. The murder of Greg Simons in Santa Monica, USA, the murders of Frank and Eleanor Carlson in Fort Lauderdale, USA, and the attempted murder of Steve and Jessica O’Brien in Panama, as well as the large-scale drug trafficking. The debrief was to be held at 17:00 GMT to allow each National office and officers to be available on video call.

  On arrival at Kings Cross, they took the tube to Earls Court and walked the short distance to the Kensington Premier Inn Hotel. They booked into the hotel and deposited the overnight bags in their rooms, after freshening up they met in the reception area, the boss and Steve were now wearing ties.

  After a short wait, Rajid Badie the Senior Investigator from NCA walked in, he greeted the Superintendent and Steve with a firm handshake and having extended his hand to Sarah, he was pulled in and given a big hug with everyone laughing. Sarah, “It’s just great meeting you in person after our little chats.”

  Rajid replied, “I have been so looking forward to meeting you and you have not let me down. It is lovely to meet you.”

  They exchanged greetings and then were driven by Rajid to the office where a small buffet had been prepared, no Geordie delicacies though. They met the rest of the NCS team who had been active on the enquiry, Aaqil Khan, Penny Hartson, Antonio Perez, Gavin Williams and Aysha Majeed. It was an informal gathering in preparation for the long debrief.

  The boss and Steve stood back in amazement as Sarah was heard speaking fluent Spanish with Antonio. After her conversation the boss spoke with Sarah, “I didn’t know you could speak Spanish, why did you not let me know?”

  “I never had any use for it in the office, or Newcastle.”

  “When or how do you know the language, it sounds perfect?”

  “Well Antonio would tell you better, but it is very good. There’s a long story, I’ll not bore you with it but needless to say it’s a wasted skill what I’m doing now, that’s why I’m thinking of redundancy.”

  “Have a word with Rajid, I’ll have a word with Rajid for you if you want?”

  “I’ll think about it, years ago maybe but now, I don’t know.”

  “You’re only 34, what’s stopping you?”

  “Like I say boss I’ll think about it, say nowt to Rajid please, for now anyway.”

  At 16:50 they all took their seats look
ing forward towards a large white screen which had rolled down from the ceiling. One by one images came live on the screen, first was Mike Mather in Caracas, Chief Karen Ostrowski in Fort Lauderdale, Captain Roy Carrol in Santa Monica and Lieutenant Jaime Rodriguez in Panama City, who was instantly recognised by Steve.

  At 16:56 Rajid opened the debrief by welcoming everyone and introduced everyone on the screen to those in the office.

  Jaime was asked to give the current status of the accused Gabriella Mariana Higuita, also known as Maria. He explained that she was still in custody in La Joyita prison and would not be leaving anytime soon, there was no trial date and she would probably appear in Court in 12 months, there was no urgency. Their prosecution file had been completed and no further action was anticipated by the police in Panama, it was expected that she would never leave the jail. He added that the cash recovered had been seized as assets gained by drug trafficking, the boat ‘Passion del Mar’ along with the vehicles and properties owned and used by Maria and in the name of her father Mario Leonel Higuita were to be sold and the monies raised would be seized as criminal gains.

  Mike Mather added that there would be no further action in Venezuela in relation to the murder of Filipe, as no body had been found it was deemed to be a waste of finance to continue the investigation with any further sentencing practical. However, the British Consulate was asking that Maria should be interviewed concerning the murder, for the peace of mind of his parents and British Justice for persons overseas. Access had been requested from the Panama Judiciary.

  Chief Ostrowski added that a further 10 people had been detained on leaving the ‘Western Horizon’ cruise ship and were found to be carrying cocaine packed in suitcases and were currently being held in prison awaiting court appearances. Unfortunately, the person who had been arrested at the scene of the murders of Frank and Eleanor Carlson had died from his gunshot wounds whilst in hospital.

  Captain Roy Carrol started by thanking all present for the messages of sympathy to the family, friends and colleagues of Greg Simons. There had been a large funeral which many had attended in memory of Greg. There had been no further information gained concerning the persons who were responsible for his death but it was believed to have been ordered by the MMV Cartel in Colombia. The investigation would continue. The Captain went on to praise Sarah for her work with Greg Simons during the investigation and knew of her distress at the knowledge of his death, he thanked her for the liaison she had maintained with Santa Monica police department and the personal tribute she had sent for the funeral.

  Superintendent Tinkler thanked everyone and fellow officers who took part in the investigation which had been instigated in Newcastle but he was saddened by the numerous murders that had occurred during the course of the investigations. It was a measure of how, with excellent communication and planned strategy, that the result was achieved and gave praise to Rajid and his team for the co-ordination of the operation, the officers at the briefing and their teams for their professionalism and making it happen.

  Rajid closed the debrief by thanking everyone for playing their part in the largest operation he had led and making it a tremendous success in International Intelligence and participation. The briefing was closed.

  The boss, Steve, Sarah together with Rajid, Aaqil, Antonio and Penny adjourned to a local bar and took up space in the lounge area. Sarah continued to speak in Spanish with Antonio, Rajid and Penny at times and appeared to enjoy the chance to speak the language. Rajid and the boss were forming ideas about where Sarah may have an opportunity. Steve was thinking of getting cheap Spanish lessons.

  Towards the end of the evening, the group split up and made their way home or towards the Premier Inn hotel. The boss made his excuses and headed to his bedroom, Steve and Sarah dropped their document bags in their rooms and returned to the hotel bar for a couple of drinks and a chat.

  They took two comfortable seats in a corner of the bar; Steve had a bottle of Peroni and Sarah had chosen Gordons Gin and tonic.

  Steve, “Come on then, why have you kept it quiet about your Spanish?”

  Sarah, “I haven’t really, I’ve just never used it or needed to show off, as some would say.”

  “When did you learn it?”

  Sarah paused and looked into Steve’s face, “Right then, I don’t want it to go further, okay?”

  Steve looked puzzled and nodded, “Okay.”

  She paused again and took a deep breath, “When I left school, I went to the Uni (Newcastle University) and studied International business management which included languages, Spanish, French and Russian. It came really easy for me. I got my degrees and part of the time I lived in Jaén, that’s a city in Spain, with a family to pick up Spanish life, customs, bla bla bla. I met someone who I liked, when I returned to Newcastle, I found out I was pregnant. I was 21, I didn’t tell him and tried to keep it from my mam and dad. I had a job lined up with a big company doing liaison and building contacts in South America it was finance.”

  Steve, “Why are you in this job now?”

  “Obviously I couldn’t take the job offer, so I got a temporary job with Proctor and Gamble dealing with the Spanish and French accounts, which was canny, met some good friends there but I had the pregnancy problem. I was about four months when I told my mam, she was like shocked and delighted, my mam told my dad he was upset to say the least but supportive in a dad way. Two weeks after I told my mam, I had a miscarriage upstairs in my room, I got to the bathroom and shouted for my mam, she was at the bingo but my dad come up, poor bugger. He phoned the ambulance got loads of towels, cuddled is really hard kept telling is everything would be ok, he would look after is. Trying to be the typical tough Geordie and crying his eyes out. My mam came home just before I was taken to hospital, they came with is. Anyway, I lost my baby and I was hurt really bad, not pain, mentally, I was fucked. After I went home, I was on the sick the company were canny, didn’t rush is back. I had lost my confidence, self-respect, I was in a bad way. My mam and dad were great, my dad was special, too much sometimes, fussing all the time trying to make things better.”

  Steve did not speak, he just listened intently.

  “When I went back to work, they knew what had happened and some made a fuss but I didn’t want that, I just wanted to get back to who I was and it took a while but I did eventually. They’re the group I go abroad with on holiday. The pay wasn’t great and I saw a job advertised for the police admin which paid slightly better but better long term so I got the job, did all the courses I could get on and eventually got the intelligence role, that’s how I’m here.”

  Steve, “I’ve known you for four years and I don’t really know you at all.”

  “I’m not just a daft, happy Geordie lass, I’m an intelligent daft, happy Geordie lass now. I don’t think the team really knew each other, well, apart from Alan and Billy. You have never been in my flat, I’ve never been to yours, I know you were in the army but really, all we get to know, or, are interested in is what you’ve done in the job. I don’t know what jobs Alan, Billy, Lauren, Andy or the boss did before they joined.”

  Steve, “That’s true, I tell you what, you come to my place and I’ll cook you a meal, what do you prefer, steak, pasta, curry, I’m a dab hand at the hot plate.”

  Sarah, “I hope you cook a good breakfast?”

  They both had a good laugh and got closer together for a gentle kiss on the cheek and a strong hug. Something was cooking.

  Steve, “I think Radjid would take you in his office maybe even get a chance in Spain or France, with your skills.”

  “He has asked me to apply, there are vacancies, I’m tempted, just got to speak to my mam and dad. I don’t want to give them any more Spanish surprises” she raised her eyebrows. “I’m seriously thinking about it though.”

  Chapter 1

  Thursday 20th October 2016

  Steve had showered and was wearing his short-sleeved Newcastle Falcons rugby shirt and black training bottoms, he was in h
is room, relaxing, lying back on his bed after his evening meal in the college restaurant and reading over the instructions for the course on Friday morning, when his mobile rang. He looked at the screen and saw it was Jessica, he sat up and answered, “Hi Jess, you, okay?”

  “Hi Steve, how is your training going, fairly easy I would imagine?”

  “Aye, it’s ok, a lot to learn but it’s sinking in, different politics, history, no-one said it would be easy but I’m getting there. How’s the business?”

  “The security side is doing well and the electronic investigation side that Maddison is working on is progressing well, I’ve picked up two contracts this week. I’ve got some news, that’s if you don’t already know, I’ve been asked to go back to Panama.”

  “I knew it, Jaime would never take no for an answer.”

  “It’s not Jaime, it’s the British Consulate, they are requesting that I go back and do a further interview with Maria, that’s Gabriella, about Filip’s murder, together with Gloria. Apparently, she wouldn’t speak to Mike Mather and specifically requested Gloria and me to talk to.”