Only 24 Hours To Crack The Case (Part 4)

So the door gets put in by my colleagues in the body armour with the big metal key. 18.59 hrs nice wooden door 19.00 hrs pile of kindling. I duck in after the rapid entry team, I love watching them work even now when I’ve seen it many times already.

As the door goes down, I see the tracky clad back of suspect #1 Mikey heading up the stairs three at a time. As our team are shouting “Police raid” suspect #2 Karly is in the front room trying to get her pants back on and shouting “Get out, get out, get out” like a scratched 45 banshee. Suspect #3 Chuckie is sitting on the battered couch. He was fumbling around under it but now he knows its only the Police he has decided he doesn’t need that claw hammer after all.

The uniform team do their job and although Mikey makes it all the way to the upstairs toilet and slam dunks the big cling film wrap of amphet’ into the bowl, strong and well practised hands grip his wrists before he can get close to flushing. He struggles and swears a bit but there isn’t any real fight in him.

Downstairs Karly is now properly dressed to receive company and telling us more in hope than expectation that there’s “nothing here.” She looks at the warrant and she may even read it, I’m not sure, before asking with utter predictability “What does it mean, Police enquiries?” (Translation = who grassed me up?). This is not a game I’m playing today. I’ve played it before and it is boring.

Chuckie is a mystery man, he doesn’t belong here at all. He used to be a big hitter in Bigville until a business rival took a hammer to the side of his head repeatedly. Now Chuckie slurs and twitches a lot. Living out here since his release from hospital, Chuckie is the 4 bells jackpot of the benefits bandit. The compensation payments have long since been frittered to naught but he’s got a good regular “wage.” Chuckie also declares Karly and Mikey as his carers so they are topping up nicely as well. Every benefit and discount has been ruthlessly claimed and ratcheted to the maximum possible. Rude not to and its a nice little addition to the main business earnings.  There’s even a nice little “park anywhere” Motability car on the road outside.

Karly and Mikey have been “2geva 4eva” as they say. They had a kid but it didn’t work out so the kid had to go. They are both tweakers and one bedroom is devoid of fixtures and fittings save for a slew of broken and disassembled mobile phones of dubious provenance and vintage. That’s their hobby. One day someone will call, I think that’s the idea.

Baggies, dealer list, loaded syringes, big wrap of class B and some cash later its back to the hive to wait for our three new friends to get themselves straight. When they do, its no alarms and no surprises as Chuckie ends up not just carrying the can but waving it over his head and taking it for a little run. The syringes are his, the baggie is his, he deals to fund his own habit yada yada yada yada yada. After all who is going to send the slurring twitchy man to prison?

Then its all home on bail to carry on dealing whilst screwing every further penny possible out of the benefits system. Another walk out for the bad guys.

They may be daft, but he is not stupid.

A land overflowing with milk and honey