Bridge of Doom (31 page)

Five minutes later the Transit van moved off and Annie was able to drive to the end of Pirniefield Lane and park up. Through her hands-free earpiece she could hear Jack and Jamie chattering away excitedly, without being able to make out exactly what was being said. 

'What the hell's going on?' squealed Annie, in frustration. 'Somebody talk to me
please
.' 

'Relax, I think we've maybe found the garage,' said Jamie. 

'Fantastic. When the Transit blocked me in back there, I thought we were completely stuffed.' 

'Yeah, but we got lucky. I managed to get the drone up in record time and began criss-crossing the area. It was a white knuckle ride, flying around in the dark, before I eventually caught up with the people carrier. But then I got a warning light on the control panel, showing I was nearly at the limit of the drone's operational range.' 

'Shit, so what happens then? Does it just drop out of the sky into somebody's back garden?' 

'No, that's the clever bit, because when it realises that the pilot probably doesn't know what he's doing, it simply returns to the original launch point and lands there by itself.' 

'I don't understand. So how did you manage to stay with the people carrier?' 

'Fortunately, just at that point Maxie turned into a cul-de-sac, full of lock-up garages and storage units. He stopped right outside a little car repair and MOT place, that's maybe halfway down the street and he's inside there right now. I'm trying to conserve battery power as much as I can, so I landed the drone on the flat roof of a building right at the end of the cul-de-sac. The night vision camera has a great view of the garage entrance from there and I can even read car number plates quite clearly. I don't have a street name for the garage location, but it should be easy enough to work it out later from a map.' 

‘Terrific job, Jamie. So how long is the drone's battery good for?' 

'I honestly don't know, Annie. The battery was fully charged at take-off, but obviously there's been around ten minutes flying time and on top of that the battery is draining, because the night vision camera is recording in HD quality. Best guess, maybe an hour absolute tops in recording mode, but then there won't be enough juice left to fly it out of there.' 

Jack butted in at that point. 'Okay Jamie, I understand what you're saying. But the important thing right now is to leave the camera recording for as long as possible, even if it flattens the battery completely. Stop the drone transmitting back to the controller and laptop, if that saves some more power. We’ll just sit here and wait for two or three hours, till Maxie and his crew are gone, then find the cul-de-sac and retrieve the drone and memory card. Does that make sense?' 

'Yes, because there's no street light near where the drone is parked. So I'm pretty sure it's invisible from the garage and maybe only ten feet off the ground. We should be able to climb up and retrieve it without too much trouble.' 

Three hours late the trio returned and cautiously drove to the end of the now deserted cul-de-sac.  

'See, there it is,' said Jamie, pointing to the edge of a small, flat-roofed storage unit, where his precious drone sat waiting patiently. 

'Okay, so how will we do this, without a ladder?' asked Jack.

'You’re the tallest, so if you stand against the wall and brace yourself with your hands, boss, I should be able to get up on your shoulders and reach the drone from there.' 

Jack reluctantly complied, before Annie climbed onto his shoulders and stood on tip-toes. 

'Christ, Annie,' said Jack, as his knees began to buckle, 'you're a lot more solid than you look, girl. You really need to ease up on the croissants and all those steak pies you’ve been scoffing at Bert's.' 

'That's a good one coming from you,' replied Annie, as she deliberately stood on Jack's head with one of her Doc Martens and managed to grab hold the drone, before jumping nimbly back to the ground and handing it to Jamie.' 

Rubbing the top of his head to try and restore circulation, Jack scowled at Annie and said, 'okay, let's get out of here. We’ll head back to base and see what’s on the memory card.'

As they drove back down the cul-de-sac Annie paused for a moment outside the nondescript garage entrance and said, 'so could this really be the place where they collect the drug money from all over Edinburgh?'

'If I was Maxie Glenn, this is
exactly
the kind of place I would use to collect my week's takings,’ replied Jack. ‘Because it isn't on a through road and it isn't overlooked by any houses or tenements either. And it's also a legitimate business with people coming and going all the time, to collect or drop off cars. So a few extra visitors, discretely dropping off bags of cash once a week, won't attract undue attention.’

'If we're right about this, Maxie won't want to have the cash on the premises for a minute longer than it needs to be. Let's face it, it would be pretty hard to explain away a couple of hundred grand or more in cash to the cops, by saying you've had a really busy week doing MOT's and fixing punctures.’

‘Fingers crossed, this could be the breakthrough we've been praying for.'

After a brief detour to pick up fish and chips, Jack and Annie gathered around the large island worktop in the kitchen back at Moray Place and watched expectantly over Jamie’s shoulder as he inserted the drone's micro SD card into an adapter sleeve and slid it into his laptop.  

'Oh shit,' said Jamie, looking up in horror. 'I don't know what went wrong … the card's completely blank.' 

'Come on … no way,' squawked Jack, choking on a large mouthful of battered cod. 'What the fuck …' 

'Sorry, I just couldn't resist that,' said Jamie with a smirk. 'Relax. We're absolutely cool, guys. The memory card looks as if it's almost full and we should have maybe eighty minutes of video. So, hopefully, it's all good stuff.' 

'Bastard,' said Jack, with feeling. 'Are you trying to give me a heart attack? Okay, no more arsing around, Jamie. I'll do all the funnies, you just play the video.' 

'Right, I'll fast forward through the first ten minutes, when we were trying to find the people carrier, and start the video from when I landed the drone on the flat roof. Okay, now we're now looking from the dead end of the cul-de-sac.'
 

'Christ, it's a really sharp picture, Jamie. You were absolutely right. I can clearly read the number plate on the people carrier sitting outside the garage. So we should easily be able to pick out faces as well.' 

'I think so, because just about
here
a guy comes out of the garage and stands looking up the street and checking his watch, as if he's waiting for someone to arrive. There, just as he turns towards the camera, you can clearly see his face and what he’s wearing. That's the point where I stopped the drone transmitting, to save the battery. I can't wait to see the rest.'

'Okay, so let the video roll and we’ll see what happens,' said Annie impatiently. 

'Right, we're back with the lookout guy standing outside the garage,' said Jamie. 'And he's still scoping out the street.' 

Five minutes later the trio observed a light coloured VW Golf GTI drive up to the garage. A young man wearing a dark hoodie and track suit bottoms got out of the car carrying a bulging plastic ASDA carrier bag. He bumped fists with the lookout before entering the garage. Ten minutes later he came back out, jumped into his car and reversed at speed back up the street. 

'What do you think, boss?'

'Well I suppose he
could
have been delivering groceries from the local supermarket, but somehow I don't think so. I'm know I'm starting to sound like Henry, but I would bet quite a lot of money that was a big bag of cash he just delivered to Maxie.' 

A further ten minutes into the video, they saw the tall burly figure of another man coming out of the garage to chat to the lookout. He began smoking and checking at his watch, just as a second car drew up and a man got out of the passenger seat. This time a plastic grocery bag was handed directly to the bigger man, who accepted it before turning round to face the camera. 

'Is that
him?' s
quealed Annie, jumping off her stool to point excitedly at the laptop screen
.
'Is that Maxie?' 

Jack got Jamie to rewind and pause the video before agreeing. 'Bloody hell, you're right, Annie. We've got the bastard bang to rights here on tape, at the garage with a bag of dirty drug money being handed straight to him.' 

'Is this enough on its own to nail Maxie?' asked Jamie.

'It's a fantastic start, because we're got car registration numbers and clear pictures of Maxie and some of the faces at the top end of the Glenn brothers drug operation, together at the actual location where the weekly take from their drug sales is collected. Believe me, this little video will be like a gift from the Gods for the cops.' 

The trio watched the video to the end, observing three additional money drop-offs at the garage. Then high fives were exchanged before Annie gave her friend an affectionate hug and said, 'you're a genius, Jamie, there's no other word for it.'  

'Look go easy on the compliments, will you, or we'll have to start paying him more money,' cautioned Jack. 

Blushing furiously, Jamie asked, 'so after we pass this video on to the cops, will they scream up the street in a week's time, kick the garage door in and arrest everyone?'  

'Personally I would hold fire, to see if they are using a courier to move the money on. And if they do, I would let him go on his way,' said Jack. 'Obviously with a discrete tail, to see where he goes and find out who else is involved in the money laundering operation. But as soon as the courier is off the scene, the cops can raid the garage and lift Maxie. Of course, that has to be done really fast, to prevent any phone calls being made to warn the rest of Maxie's crew. Once that’s done all of the suspects can be held for twelve hours, initially, and then a further twelve hours if sanctioned by a senior police officer.' 

'But wouldn't Maxie just get lawyered up straight away and start answering
'no comment'
to every question? And if he can speak privately to a lawyer, surely his brief would be able to pass word to the courier, to tell him to abort the money run.' 

'Good point, Annie. You're right, because he would be entitled to have a lawyer present, but
only
if he was being formally interviewed. So the cops can just leave Maxie, and any other gang members they've scooped up, sitting stewing in the cells until they've tracked the courier to his final destination. That way it's all done and dusted before he gets anywhere near a lawyer.' 

'Very sneaky. I like it.'  

'If the cops put enough pressure on, somebody in the organisation usually flips at that point and starts talking, in exchange for a reduced sentence. It might be one of the gang members based here in Edinburgh or, even better, one of the white collar guys at the UK end of the money laundering operation. If they can get somebody to start spilling their guts, Maxie's tits will be well and truly stuck in the wringer.'  

'Okay, but what about his brother Raymond, the sleazy lawyer? We definitely want him locked up as well, because he was the brains behind the
Westlink
takeover and it was probably his idea to get Henry involved in the first place.' 

'That's a tougher one to call, Annie, because it depends how clever he’s been at covering his tracks. But if Raymond can't come up with a convincing explanation, about where all of the so-called overseas investors money came from, then he's got a major problem. If the authorities put together a strong enough case against Maxie first of all, they can then move against Raymond using Proceeds of Crime legislation to seize money, property or any other assets, which are believed to be derived from criminal activity. It's a really powerful weapon, because it's up to the accused to prove that the money used to buy all of these assets came from a legitimate source.'  

Jack yawned widely and stretched before saying, ‘I’m knackered, so I’m heading off to bed. I honestly don't think there's a whole lot more that we can do on this one. In the morning I'll gather together all of our evidence, Jamie's video files, Henry's letter and then write out a full statement for the cops, outlining what we've been doing here in Edinburgh for the past two weeks. Obviously I'll concentrate on how the Glenn brothers tried to muscle in on the
Westlink
project, to launder profits from their drug operations. But I’ll also emphasise that we believe they’re wholly responsible for Henry’s death.’

‘What happens then?’

‘I’m going to phone Andy Walsh first, before I do anything else, because he has a friend who recently transferred to the new National Crime Agency. The NCA gets involved in big cross-border criminal cases, so that might be the best way to quickly get our information into the right hands.’

‘And once that’s done and dusted, we can say goodbye to Guy and the New Town and head back to Glasgow.’

‘That’s right, Annie. Our work here on earth is done.’