about sleeping with Lois. His worst moment had been in Sasha’s basement the evening after Junior got nabbed, with the entire Mad Dogs crew re-enacting Junior’s I’m not a baby speech and laughing about his rotten luck. Still, the plush restaurant cheered James up and the chubby Chief Inspector arrived bearing gifts.
‘Haven’t got kids,’ he explained, as he pulled four envelopes out of his bomber jacket. ‘I’ve got no idea what you’d like so I copped out and got gift vouchers. You can get games, books or whatever.’
James smiled as he opened his envelope and joined in the round of thanks as the inspector sat down and opened a menu.
‘Did you get here all right?’ Chloe asked.
‘No probs,’ the inspector said. He looked at Gabrielle. ‘How are you feeling now? I lost a couple of nights’ sleep over you.’
‘Not bad,’ Gabrielle smiled. ‘I had a hospital appointment yesterday. The doctor seemed happy with the way everything’s healing. I’ve been doing some brisk walking on campus to help get my strength back, but I still get sore if I try anything too vigorous.’
‘Have you got any good scars?’ Bruce asked.
‘More than you,’ Gabrielle shot back. ‘I’m visiting a cosmetic surgeon who’s gonna see if there’s anything they can do to cover the scars. Like, skin grafts or something.’
‘I reckon they should leave them alone,’ Michael said, as he smiled at his girlfriend. ‘They’re part of you now.’
‘Give us a look then,’ Bruce said.
Gabrielle stood and gathered up her waist-hugging T-shirt, revealing the three pink scars across her belly, each one crisscrossed with faint stitch marks. Then she twirled to show the puncture mark in her back.
‘I thought you only got stabbed twice,’ James said, confused.
‘They had to make extra incisions when they tied all of her tubes back together,’ Michael said. He took Gabrielle’s hand and kissed her neck as she sat down. ‘You’re the most beautiful girl in the world,’ he said softly.
‘I’ve got a massive scar on my leg,’ Bruce said, as he started pulling up the leg of his tracksuit bottoms.
‘Put it away,’ Chloe said firmly. ‘We’re here for a relaxing meal and a briefing on tomorrow’s operation. I don’t want to see any more scars.’
‘That’s good,’ Inspector Rush grinned. ‘ ’Cos the only one I’ve got is on my bum.’
The inspector was trying too hard to ingratiate himself with the kids and his joke went flat, but the waitress came in to break the awkward silence. James eyed her tight black trousers as she took orders and gathered up menus.
‘So, Inspector,’ Chloe said as the waitress stepped out, ‘perhaps you can give us a run-down on what’s happening tomorrow.’
‘I’m in my civvies so call me Mark,’ the inspector asked. ‘In essence, the plan is straightforward. Simeon Bentine has revealed that Major Dee gets a regular shipment of cocaine hidden inside drums of cooking oil that are shipped from the USA by container.’
‘I thought Dee’s contacts were in Jamaica,’ James said.
‘They are,’ Chloe explained. ‘We’re not sure exactly how the smuggling operation works. But customs are hot on shipments from the Caribbean, whereas canned goods from the USA are much less likely to be searched. The cocaine is probably brought on board the container ship in a small boat mid-Atlantic. Then they throw the real drums of cooking oil over the side and replace them with drums partially filled with cocaine.’
‘From a technical point of view it’s pretty clever,’ Maureen added. ‘The tins are airtight so there’s no way anything can be picked up by sniffer dogs or electronic systems. A container filled with metal cans is also very difficult to image electronically and the only way for customs to inspect what’s inside a drum is to break the seal, which will spoil the produce.’
‘It’s the kind of racket that you’ll only ever stop by getting inside information,’ the inspector said. ‘So even if we fail to nab our major suspects tomorrow, we’ll still seriously degrade their ability to bring cocaine into this country.
‘Officers from the Leicestershire force have already installed surveillance equipment in the warehouse where the deal is going down. But they had to tread carefully because Sasha Thompson and his boys have also been staking the joint out.’
‘That’s good though,’ Michael said. ‘It means they’re definitely planning to show.’
The inspector continued. ‘All being well, Simeon reckons the container will land at Dover around midnight tonight. It’ll be picked up on a truck and driven to the warehouse, for a meeting between the smugglers and Major