New Directions (36)

‘If that’s where he lives we should get over there now.’ I said already getting up.

‘Easy there Lone Ranger, let’s find out a little more about the mark first,’ Erik mumbled, his nose almost touched the screen as he typed instructions.

Calmed by Erik’s cool voice, I settled back in my seat, ‘Like what, Tonto?’

‘Like if he’s at home for a start.’ Erik continued clacking the key board, ‘Did you know tonto means stupid in Spanish?’

‘If I did I wouldn’t tell you . . . look, Mate this bloke might be a prick, but his life is in danger and if he gets topped we’ll lose our lead.’

‘Fuck him, they can have him.’ 

I wasn’t sure I’d heard Eric correctly at first. ‘What's that?’

The sound of typing stopped. Using his arm as a prop Erik leaned on his hand he looked at me, his eyes scanning my face, ‘And if you catch him what’s your plan?

That cut me dead. Of course what I had in mind was frought with danger, ‘Well erm—‘

‘Don’t tell me. You would lift him, take him somewhere, rough him up and force him to spill. Right?’

‘A bit more subtle than that, but in a nutshell.’ Eric stared at me for several seconds which actually felt like minutes, ‘OK stupid idea,’ I conceded.

‘Maybe not ten years ago. Times have changed since you were operating, besides Guido won’t stand for that.’

‘Yeah I get it. DNA; cameras by the shitload; every man and his dog’s got home security, blah blah blah. You telling me I’m a dinosaur now?’

‘You’re probably one of a handful of people who could get away with it, but in this country the risks are stupidly high. For example London has the third highest number of surveillance cameras per person in the World. Only two Chinese cities have more. It’s unlikely we could cover for you if they picked you up.’ Erik returned to his keyboard.

‘So what’s your pl—‘

‘—’shh, we’re in.’ Mercer’s ugly mug came up on screen. Distorted by his PC’s wide angle lens his face appeared squeezed forward; his nose Concordesque. ’That’s handy,’ Erik whispered.

Fascinated I watched the screen while Mercer typed on his PC. ‘The twat’s using WhatsApp ©. Who’s he messaging?’ Seconds later we had a list of all his contacts and conversations for the last four months, ‘That should help,’ Eric whispered as he downloaded it. ‘We’ll go through that later.’

‘What now?’

‘We’ll wait till he’s finished and when he thinks he’s turned off his computer we can do a deep search. Shouldn’t be long, looks like he’s off to work in a minute.’

Five minutes later our man shut his computer. On the split screen the Ring camera showed him leaving the house and walking to the bus stop. After the bus took him away Erik had a walk around inside his PC while I plugged a memory stick into my own laptop and went through all Mercer’s conversations with his contacts.