values of today. He was sensitive. He gave more than just a passing thought for the welfare of his team and Geraldine liked that. He was the modern kind of police officer. He was himself but with a warrant card. Her son had been on her mind a lot lately. There wasn’t much chance of him growing up to be as open minded as Jeff judging by how much poison his father had poured into his head about Geraldine. She’d never wanted to hurt her ex-husband. That had been the very last thing she would ever have wanted. But he considered the fact that she’d left him for another woman to be a sin that was not worthy of his forgiveness. If he knew the kind of problems she was now having with her partner Sheila it might please him in some way that she was suffering. But you can’t go crawling back to someone you’ve hurt and expect them to offer you sympathy and support because the one you left them for gets a bit too handy with her fists.
‘Jeff, I think you already know Detective Chief Inspector Mike Phillips who heads up the unit dealing with gang crime in the city’ said Geraldine once Jeff had joined her and Mike in Geraldine’s office. ‘Please take a seat, gentlemen’.
Jeff and Mike shook each other’s hands in that very alpha male way when two officers meet. To reflect Jeff’s higher rank Mike addressed him initially as ‘sir’ but Jeff told him to dispense with formalities.
‘I don’t need to tell you Jeff that we have a situation to deal with in relation to PC Tyler Moore’ Geraldine went on. ‘And it needs to be dealt with fast’.
‘Mike, just how did you come to place a rookie PC in the middle of a potentially very dangerous undercover operation?’
Mike noted the slight rebuke in Jeff’s voice but he’d been prepared for it. Looking back it maybe wasn’t his best decision to put Tyler Moore in with the Gorton boys but it was too late to waste time on regretting that now.
‘Tyler Moore is an extremely able young police officer’ said Mike. ‘He came to my attention during an operation involving a Salford gang in which he put his life on the line in the arrest of the gang leader who was wielding a sawn off shotgun and was more than ready to use it on a police officer who he considered as the enemy. If you don’t mind me saying Tyler Moore is far beyond being labeled as a rookie if you don’t mind me saying. He’s intelligent and very capable’.
‘I don’t doubt any of that, Mike, but surely you must have assessed the risks of putting him in there?’
‘I did’ said Mike. He shifted in his seat. He was feeling somewhat defensive. ‘And whatever happens is on my head, I accept that’.
‘Tyler Moore has been able to provide Mike with a lot of valuable intelligence regarding the activities of Melanie Patterson, Jeff’ said Geraldine.
‘Go on?’ said Jeff.
‘Well’ said Mike. ‘Melanie Patterson is the undisputed leader of the Gorton boys. Sure it was made out that her son Leroy held the top spot but he couldn’t do anything without consulting his mother first. The Gorton boys used a mixture of violence and intimidation to control what they considered to be their streets and they made a lot of money from the drugs trade on the estate. They’d also started a new line in pimping. Girls, boys, usually addicts who’d do anything to get enough cash for a fix’.
‘Nothing new in that’ said Jeff. ‘It’s more or less classic’.
‘True enough’ said Mike. ‘But make no mistake, Jeff. Melanie Patterson ruled the Gorton boys with a rod of iron. We knew all about the intimidation and the drugs and the pimping but the reason why I put Tyler Moore in there as her long lost nephew was so that he could find evidence linking her to two murders eighteen months ago. The bodies of two former members of the Gorton boys, Alan Chaplin and Reggie Clayton, were found on waste ground to the side of the A580 going towards Wigan. The pathologist concluded that they’d been
‘Jeff, I think you already know Detective Chief Inspector Mike Phillips who heads up the unit dealing with gang crime in the city’ said Geraldine once Jeff had joined her and Mike in Geraldine’s office. ‘Please take a seat, gentlemen’.
Jeff and Mike shook each other’s hands in that very alpha male way when two officers meet. To reflect Jeff’s higher rank Mike addressed him initially as ‘sir’ but Jeff told him to dispense with formalities.
‘I don’t need to tell you Jeff that we have a situation to deal with in relation to PC Tyler Moore’ Geraldine went on. ‘And it needs to be dealt with fast’.
‘Mike, just how did you come to place a rookie PC in the middle of a potentially very dangerous undercover operation?’
Mike noted the slight rebuke in Jeff’s voice but he’d been prepared for it. Looking back it maybe wasn’t his best decision to put Tyler Moore in with the Gorton boys but it was too late to waste time on regretting that now.
‘Tyler Moore is an extremely able young police officer’ said Mike. ‘He came to my attention during an operation involving a Salford gang in which he put his life on the line in the arrest of the gang leader who was wielding a sawn off shotgun and was more than ready to use it on a police officer who he considered as the enemy. If you don’t mind me saying Tyler Moore is far beyond being labeled as a rookie if you don’t mind me saying. He’s intelligent and very capable’.
‘I don’t doubt any of that, Mike, but surely you must have assessed the risks of putting him in there?’
‘I did’ said Mike. He shifted in his seat. He was feeling somewhat defensive. ‘And whatever happens is on my head, I accept that’.
‘Tyler Moore has been able to provide Mike with a lot of valuable intelligence regarding the activities of Melanie Patterson, Jeff’ said Geraldine.
‘Go on?’ said Jeff.
‘Well’ said Mike. ‘Melanie Patterson is the undisputed leader of the Gorton boys. Sure it was made out that her son Leroy held the top spot but he couldn’t do anything without consulting his mother first. The Gorton boys used a mixture of violence and intimidation to control what they considered to be their streets and they made a lot of money from the drugs trade on the estate. They’d also started a new line in pimping. Girls, boys, usually addicts who’d do anything to get enough cash for a fix’.
‘Nothing new in that’ said Jeff. ‘It’s more or less classic’.
‘True enough’ said Mike. ‘But make no mistake, Jeff. Melanie Patterson ruled the Gorton boys with a rod of iron. We knew all about the intimidation and the drugs and the pimping but the reason why I put Tyler Moore in there as her long lost nephew was so that he could find evidence linking her to two murders eighteen months ago. The bodies of two former members of the Gorton boys, Alan Chaplin and Reggie Clayton, were found on waste ground to the side of the A580 going towards Wigan. The pathologist concluded that they’d been
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