Kiss of Death

‘My proposal, which I first made to DSU Piper and then to NPCC, was that SCU and Cold Case pooled their resources and drew up a list of the twenty Most Wanted fugitives from UK justice who were still believed to be in the country. And once we’d established that list, that we rekindled and pursued those particular enquiries. In short, that we made it our very next job to go after the twenty worst of the worst.’

Heck eyed the rows of faces on-screen. On their way in, everyone present had been handed a bundle of paperwork relevant to their own particular part of the enquiry, but also providing overarching information about Sledgehammer as a whole. No doubt, all of these mugshots, and the rap-sheets attached to each one of them, would be included in said packages, but it was interesting to see the faces all on-screen together.

‘You won’t need me to tell you,’ Gwen said, ‘that if, within a reasonable timeframe, we can arrest and convict even half of the names on this list – because each one of these is an open sore which NPCC is both angry and embarrassed about – we will massively boost our value for money in the eyes of the people who matter.’

She paused again, to let it sink in.

‘So, people … welcome to Operation Sledgehammer. DSU Piper picked the name, because we’re going to bring the full weight of the police service of England and Wales down on these scattered nuts, who are likely to be much more fragile than they realise.’

There were several satisfied snickers.

‘In the first instance, as some of you are already aware, we’re assigning two detectives to each individual. I know it doesn’t seem like a lot, but that’s only for the initial phase of the enquiry. Once you’ve made substantial ground on your case, Silver Command – that’s myself and DSU Piper, we will joint-SIO this investigation from the Command Centre here at Staples Corner – will provide all the technical, financial and personnel back-up you require to see it through to the end. We’ve already made preliminary contact with the various force areas in which your enquiries are to be focused, and in most cases, you’ll find that local CID have already done some groundwork on your behalf.

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