“They do. There’s a file as long as your arm on what they think he’s been getting up to. But knowing what he’s doing and proving it are two very different things. I pulled everything I could find from the Police National Computer. He was investigated three years ago on suspicion of taking a yacht to France and then coming back again with fifty kilograms of cocaine. The yacht was intercepted on the way back and the drugs were found. Jackson wasn’t aboard, and even though the police knew that the drugs were his, they couldn’t prove it. He walked and, from the outside at least, it seems the experience taught him that he was going to have to be even more careful if he wanted to avoid prison. Much of the rest of what I’ve found out is speculative, but it looks like he went to Mexico to meet senior representatives of La Frontera. He set up an arrangement with them to take regular shipments of Colombian coke, using the Mexicans’ expertise to get it across the border. He’s the biggest importer in the north, probably in the whole country.”

“Dangerous?”

“He was arrested ten years ago and was given six months inside. He had a fight with another inmate. The other guy threw the first punch, or so Jackson said afterwards at his trial, but he got the other guy down and then kicked him in the head enough times to knock him out. The other guy died in hospital. Jackson said it was self-defence. He got an additional three years for manslaughter. That’s the only official confirmation that he’s killed someone, but the police suspect more. So is he dangerous? Yes. I’d say he’s very dangerous.”

22

Jackson’s front business was in an industrial park in Worsley that comprised a grid of roads offering access to similar properties. There were warehouses and offices, all with small parking areas that separated them from the pavement and the road. Milton drove slowly, checking both sides of the road as they rolled down it. There was a packaging business, a business that produced fabric for workwear, a showroom featuring sheds and playhouses that was open to both the trade and the public. Jackson’s property was a medium-sized building built from brick and corrugated iron. There was a row of windows on the ground floor and then metal facing that protected the rest of the elevation all the way up to a pitched roof. There was a parking area for five cars and, to the left, a gate that looked as if it offered access to the rear. The sign that was fixed to the wall announced the building as belonging to Northwest Lead.

Milton drove past the warehouse, made a U-turn when they were well past the entrance, then moved the Toyota to the kerb. They had a good view of the building from there.