The Mallorcan Bookseller (The 3R International Series Book 1) Read online

  “Greg, where are you? Have you been listening?” she smiled.

  “Yes, yes, I’m sorry, I was listening honestly, but you’ve got me,” he paused then said, “distracted”.

  She smiled again. She knew she didn’t need to ask him what was distracting him. She was old enough and wise enough to know when a man is looking at you as a woman and not as a detective. She certainly didn’t mind that. It had been a tough three or four weeks on the island working on these cases and not really getting anywhere. So, to talk about something else and with someone who, yes, she was attracted to, was a nice thing to do, even if nothing came of it. She lived across on the mainland and he seemed to work all across the world, so anything permanent was unlikely, but she hadn’t felt like this for a while, so why not enjoy it?

  What he liked was that she was very easy to be with and to talk to. Occasionally their hands briefly touched, as they were both ‘hand wavers’ as they talked. To start with there was the usual slight embarrassed apology, in case one of them had been too forward, but that soon slipped away and gradually they came together and he found himself taking hold of one of her hands as they talked and she responded by closing her fingers around his.

  “I wasn’t thinking this would be like this,” said Lori. “Hmm, I confess I’m slightly confused, but in a good way.”

  “Yes, strange for me too,” said Greg, “and in a good way, a very good way. And I don’t see a problem with this Lori, if you don’t? After all, we’re on the same side and we’re already collaborating on the case.”

  “I don’t see a problem either, but I don’t know what my bosses might think. Listen, it’s pretty obvious I think that we’ve got an attraction, let’s just enjoy it and see where it goes shall we?”

  A common sense approach. Just like when she was in her work mode. He liked that.

  “That’s good for me. Now, I need to go and see the MacDonalds. They’re staying at Cap Rocat. Can I call you tomorrow and see where we’re at? In the meantime, I’ll call Sam Martínez. He seems like a really good guy. Another strange thing Lori, I know his mother from way back when she was in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office,” said Greg.

  He thought it best to not go into Anna’s story as that was something private for her to decide who she told and that clearly had been no one for thirty years or so.

  “Cap Rocat? Nice and yes, I like Sam too and he’s younger than you,” she teased him. “Okay, I’ll call you in the morning and then you can take me to dinner tomorrow night.”

  They parted with a kiss on both cheeks and as he drove back to Terri’s apartment he wondered what had just happened with Lori. He certainly hadn’t been expecting that when he sat there waiting for her, but he was really glad it had. He then smiled to himself. He knew Terri would get it out of him, probably before they got to the MacDonalds for dinner. But then again, it might just deflect her from asking questions about how he knew Anna, so ‘every cloud….,’ he thought to himself.

  NINE

  Lori walked back towards police headquarters, up Passeig de Born and then left into Jaume III.

  She caught herself smiling. She hadn’t done that for a while, smile, so it was good to think about something other than work for a moment, but it was time for a quick call into the Intel team to see where they had got to in identifying the image Greg had given her. She called Alberto, the OCG Intel team leader.

  “Inspectora, I told you I would call you as soon as I had something,” said Alberto.

  “I know Alberto, but first thing tomorrow morning I am going to have my boss wanting to know what progress we’re making. Now you can either join me on the conference call tomorrow or you can let me handle him. Which is it to be?” said Lori.

  “Okay, okay, Señora. I know you’re just trying to help keep the wolves away from me, but I can only give you some options at the moment. I think you were right in your original thinking, that the guy looks East European. The tattoo is difficult to get any more from, but it looks from the size and positioning, on the left wrist, that it could be Russian, Ukrainian or maybe even Armenian.”

  “Why Armenian Alberto? I know we’ve got some Russian and Ukrainian OCGs with a strong presence here on the Balearics, but why are you thinking about the Armenians?” said Lori.

  “It’s just a hunch, mostly based on the fact that the Russians and Ukrainians know to keep a low profile and we haven’t had any change in their team players to suggest anything different in the operating style. That leaves the Armenians as a maybe. They are run by a guy called Senichi Sargsyan, known as Sonny. Now he is a very nasty piece of work and so this might just be the sort of thing he might do. But please Inspectora, don’t take this as anything more than a professional guess at the moment,” said Alberto.

  “Alberto, I understand, but I do like your thinking. I know this Sonny Sargsyan and yes, with no new players in the other OCGs, this also suggests no change in their operating style. We know the Armenians have been trying to up their game on the islands, so this could be a new tactic, but how the hell have they got a tie-in with an Indian IT scam? Don’t answer that. That’s just me talking out loud. Look, it’s nearly seven o’clock and time you went home to your family. I’ll call you in the morning.”

  “Muchas Gracias Inspectora Garcia,” said Alberto.

  He liked working with her. She was firm, but always very fair and she had a very good reputation as a senior detective. She should be higher up the chain he thought, but then again, we need her type operating at this level to catch these guys. She always expected high quality work, but she was always quick to recognise it as well and to make sure you got your share of the credit. Time for home she had said. Tomorrow he would work on checking out the Indian link.

  It was too soon, she thought, to tell Greg of the possible link to an Armenian OCG. She needed more on this and quickly, but for now, it was also time to get back to her apartment and put her feet up. The GEO had set her up in a small one bed place close by to the headquarters. It was ideal for work, but also for getting about in the city. She hadn’t eaten yet and thought about killing two birds with one stone. She called Sam Martínez.

  “Inspectora Garcia, how can I help?” said Sam.

  “I’ve got some updates. Have you eaten yet?” said Lori.

  He hadn’t eaten and he liked the idea of an opportunity to get an update from her. The text from Chambers had made him think they were absolutely right to move Bill when they did, but he was still a little puzzled that she would take him further into her confidence. He suggested a place to meet just down from Sa Petita Llibreria. Lori had enough time to shower and change before she set off to meet him. The sun was still shining and it was a lovely warm summer evening. She wore a summer dress and had kept her hair down. He was a nice young man and so why shouldn’t she dress up a little to meet him. ‘He’s much too young, but it’s not often I get to go out with two nice attractive men in the same day,’ she thought.

  An hour later they were sitting at a table. Sam had thought she was an attractive looking woman when he first met her, but seeing her out of her work style clothes and with her hair down made him sit up. ‘Maybe I need to text Jimmy with an update?’

  “Inspectora Garcia, it’s good to see you,” said Sam.

  “Sam, please, call me Lori and you’re smiling, that’s nice to see,” she said.

  He almost blushed, so came up with an alternative story.

  “Yes, despite all the crap that’s been happening, what with Bill and now even worse with Sheila MacDonald, I am feeling good. I’d like to try to help Bill get his money back, even if it’s just through his credit card company and I’m happy to help if there’s anything you might need from me, even if it’s a polite please stay out of my way,” said Sam.

  “Well, as you can see from Señor Chambers’ text about Intertech, there seems to be a connection, so I think at last that we’re now making some progress and to be fair, I need to thank Greg,” she corrected herself, “Greg Chambers, for hi
s help in also finding the image of the guy who stole the van.”

  “That’s great news,” said Sam, also noticing her slight slip, referring to Chambers as ‘Greg’. That’s interesting he thought.

  “I think you probably appreciate Sam that I wouldn’t usually share such information, however, you operate in my line of work and these guys could be running a similar scam in London, so it won’t do any harm and it might actually do me some good to get your viewpoint on this.”

  “I understand and I appreciate your trust. So have you got anywhere with the image?” said Sam.

  She told him about the tattoo on the left wrist of the van thief and her intel officer’s professional guess on the possibility of the OCG being Armenian. He liked the rationale her intel guy was using. It made sense. Many OCGs kept low profiles in and around their own areas and kept the dirty work reserved for places away from where they were based, but this wasn’t necessarily the case if an OCG was looking to extend their business operation.

  “By the way, I met your Greg Chambers today,” said Sam, “and bizarrely, he knew my mother! I don’t know who was more surprised, Greg, my mother or me.”

  She noted him use the word ‘your’ and wondered if he had seen them, but she let him go on.

  “To be honest, I wasn’t sure if I’d take to him, but he seems an okay guy. What do you make of him? I’m assuming he’s ex-security services of some sort,” said Sam.

  “Yes, I think you may well be right, said Lori. “I spent some time with Greg late this afternoon and yes, he seems as you say, an okay guy, the very essence of an English gentleman I think.”

  “An English gentleman? Hmm, I don’t know about that Lori. Once a spook, always a spook,” said Sam.

  “Spook, what do you mean? A spy?” said Lori.

  “Yes, sorry, that’s what I meant.”

  “Well Señor MacDonald doesn’t seem to be the sort of man to do business with anyone he doesn’t rate highly, so I’m assuming that is a good endorsement,” said Lori, who decided she should move the topic of conversation off Greg and back to the images. “Anyway, we need to show the images to Señor Patterson, just in case he has seen anyone like that near to his villa before you moved him out to your mother’s place.”

  “Good idea to cross reference things,” said Sam. “Never assume and never overlook the obvious. Text book stuff from my Hendon Detective Training School days and probably yours too Lori,” said Sam with a smile.

  “Yes, when in doubt, look for the evidence and when you have found it, look again and see what you have missed. Professionally it was embarrassing to get two key pieces of evidence from Greg, well one was from his daughter, but it would be worse if I was sitting here now with nothing to go on,” said Lori.

  “Daughter?” said Sam.

  “Yes, his daughter flew in today from Egypt. She’s like his Operations Director, ex-army and she seems just as resourceful as her father,” said Lori, “because she’s the one who came up with the images.”

  “Daughter huh? Didn’t know about her,” said Sam just as the first course arrived at the table. Lori had shown a preference for local Mallorquin wines, which suited him as his father had brought him up to support the local Balearics wine industry. They shared a bottle of Macià Batle1856, a very nice, easy drinking vino tinto and just right to go with their choice of food.

  They talked as they ate. It was an easy relaxed conversation. She found him easy to talk to and she told him about her father, who had worked for a small vineyard for many years back on the mainland and so she too liked favouring the smaller wine producers. Sam told her about his parents and why he was back in Mallorca. She understood the pressures of their work, including carrying a firearm, as she was always armed. He also knew the pressure Lori was probably under from a high profile case involving the murder of a wealthy British woman on the island.

  “I can imagine you are getting a fair amount of hassle, I mean pressure, from your bosses about the murder?” said Sam.

  “Well you’ll know what it’s like Sam,” said Lori. “It was tough enough with the string of burglaries, but now with the murder, they really want a result and I don’t blame them. They put me on secondment to the GEO because of these types of cases and I’ve got a set of highly trained and very tough cops ready to take on these OCG guys. I just need to point them in the right direction. They sent me over here when the first high value burglaries occurred. Always single occupants, usually aged over seventy, high value villas, but other than frightening the victim, which was obviously bad enough, they weren’t physically harmed until Señora MacDonald. I think because they were shaken up, none of them made mention of anything to do with a computer scam, although to be fair, they probably still thought it was genuine and it was the last thing on their mind after they were burgled. We’ve now got my investigators re-contacting the victims of all high value burglaries since January and getting their bank records checked against payments to Intertech. The problem I’ve got is getting into Intertech. They seem very well protected by a myriad of shadow companies and dead ends, so I can’t get near to finding where they operate from and who runs them.”

  “It’s a tough one. I’ve had my guy back in London run the name through our records and he’s hit the same brick wall as well. We need a plan, so let’s sleep on it and see what we come up with,” said Sam.

  She looked at him quizzically and he started to blush again, realising how what he had just suggested could be interpreted.

  “Is that an invitation Sam?” she asked him quietly, looking over the rim of her glass into his eyes?

  “Er, no, no. And not because I don’t find you very attractive, because you are. It’s because I didn’t mean it like that. I meant we should go our separate ways and then sleep on it,” he stammered.

  “So you don’t want to sleep with me then Sam?” said Lori, still looking at him.

  By now, he didn’t know where to look, until he looked back at her face and saw her starting to laugh.

  “I’m so sorry Sam,” she said. “I was only teasing you. Please forgive me.”

  He started laughing too. She was good fun and he enjoyed her company.

  “Listen, do you fancy going for a drink somewhere and maybe rattling some cages?” said Sam.

  “I’m sorry Sam, what do you mean ‘rattle some cages’?” said Lori.

  “Well, you’ve told me what this guy looks like, East European with a tattoo on his left wrist. Let’s go and check out some of the local bars where I know they have doormen from that part of Europe and see if we can’t flush something out,” said Sam. “No confrontation, just observation and intel gathering”.

  She thought for a moment.

  “I like your ‘rattle some cages’ idea Sam. Where do you suggest or shall I ring my Intel team for some suggestions?” said Lori.

  “I might have worked in London for fifteen years Lori, but I grew up in this city and still know my way around. I might be a bit rusty on who runs what in terms of protection, but I’m sure we’ll find a few possibilities to try out,” said Sam.

  “Okay,” said Lori, “let’s do it.”

  *****

  Sonny had gone into the city to check on some of the bars and clubs where his team collected their Support Package fees in return for his team ensuring their property came to no harm. Admittedly, the bar and restaurant owners could feel that their clients were safe and that anyone getting unruly or violent towards anyone was quickly dealt with. However, the Support Package also worked the other way and there was sufficient evidence of burnt out properties in this part of the city to show what happened if an owner decided not to pay their ‘fees’.

  Whilst Sonny was happy that the money he was bringing in from these places was a fair and reasonable return for the investment of his team’s time, he was also keen to move to a more upmarket area of the city. This was not going to be easy, because he had to think about who currently ran those sites and there were many who paid nothing because of a strong
policing presence in that area, especially around the tourist places.

  So part of his visit was to look at whether he could persuade some of the owners to take their own establishments upmarket in terms of trade and clientele. He was even happy to help with favourable loan terms and a reduction on fees to help them get their business off the ground and so far he had received some interest from two owners where he saw some real potential to develop their business.

  As he was sitting in the Security Room of one of the bars, Zero Zero, just off the main Ramblas street, he noticed a man and a woman on one of the CCTV cameras. He could see the man's face, but not the woman's. They were talking to one of the doormen, Artur. What struck him was that they didn’t look like the usual type of customers who frequented this bar. Sometimes admittedly, they had stag parties and even some tourists strayed off the main streets and into areas they were best off not spending too much time in, but there was something about these two, but he didn’t know what it was. They didn’t seem to be causing any issue, so he left it to Artur to deal with.