The Murder Exchange (48 page)

Sergeant Phil Winter of Scotland Yard's elite firearms
squad SO19 didn't hestitate. He'd already seen the body of
DC Paul Vokerman face-down on the bed, a growing bloodstain
soaking the sheets around his head; now one of the
suspects, hunched down in the corner of the room beside the
bed, was lifting his gun. Two shots, then a step, two shots,
then another step, then another two shots, every one of them
finding their target. Beside him Constable Sammy Jecks
opened up with his MP5, and the body of Manuel Lopez did
a strange dance as the bullets ripped into his head and body
and charged about his insides, ripping them and him apart.

Minimum force. The training always says only the minimum
amount of force possible must be used to incapacitate
a subject. Shoot him too many times, particularly when it's
clear he's no longer a threat, and a police officer leaves him
or herself open to charges of manslaughter, or even, in
extreme cases, murder. But Winter couldn't resist pumping
another two into the Colombian's guts as he continued
towards him, knowing that statistically he probably wasn't
going to get another opportunity to pop a bad guy. Lopez's
head slumped, the Glock with silencer fell from his dead
hand, and Winter stopped in front of him, before kicking
him hard in the face.

Jecks rushed up to Vokerman and tried to find a pulse,
but Winter could tell from the expression on his colleague's
face that it was a lost cause. He turned to the door as the
senior officers involved in what was supposed to have been a
highly successful sting operation entered the room along with
the remainder of the SO 19 team. They did not look too
happy.

And that, unfortunately, is where I, DI John Gallan, join
the tale, being one of those senior officers involved. The
thing is, I was only meant to be there as an observer, as was
my colleague, WDS Tina Boyd, but I don't think that fact
made either of us feel any better. It had been our informant
who had provided the details and false character references
that had set up Mark 'Stegs' Jenner and Paul 'Yokes'

Vokerman, both members of Scotland Yard's specialist
undercover unit, SO 10, with a group of high-level Colombian
drug traffickers, so as Tina and I followed DCS Noel
Flanagan and DI Asif Malik of Scotland Yard's organized
crime unit, SO7, into the hotel room, I was experiencing a
feeling in my insides that was a nasty combination of fear,
shame and nausea. As I saw the ruined bodies of Manolo
Lopez and Yokes Vokerman, one of whom I'd got to know
quite well over the past few weeks, watched the frantic efforts
of the medical team as they worked their futile magic, and
heard DI Malik curse loudly under his breath, the question I
remember I kept asking myself was a very simple one.
What the hell had gone wrong?

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