I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 90 : Navaja and Radders

Gregory and his team were gathered around Sally's desk, papers  displayed all over it and on the floor, a large white board covered in  their different calligraphy just nearby. It was already eight in the  morning and as the girls post-mortem was just starting in Barts, the  team had made huge breakthrough on the case during the night, helped by  some of Trident's officer that were regularly visiting them, bringing  new informations about the movements of the other alleged gang members  during the last few days and on their different rivalries with other  gangs, mainly from the South of London from where the victim was living.
As  he was grabbing a white board pen to note down a new information, Greg  suddenly remarked Mycroft popping his head into the office. The auburn  approached from the team and delivered them a box full of doughnuts as  well as warm and smooth lattes. They all chinned up at the view of the  food and smiled genuinely at the man who was offering it, not even  caring about the reason that had brought their boss' husband to visit  them.
"Good morning everyone." the official greeted them cheerfully.  For some reason he was actually in a really good mood and seemed very  pleased to be there. He placed a small peck on his partner's cheek  before leaning against Donougher's desk. "So, any progression on the  investigation ?"
"Actually yes." nodded the detective-inspector. "One  of the victim died in hospital after being stabbed seven time, around  two in the morning."
"And that's a progress ?" chuckled the elder Holmes with a mocking grin.
"Well, that's because you haven't heard the rest." retorted the policeman. "Sally, if you care ?"
"Alright.  So the girl was named Eleanor McAohda, 17, from South London, arrested  three time for drug possession and rebellion, only sentence to a few  fines and community work. But by going through the database we actually  discovered that she was under the anti-gang's radar which makes the  crime much more interesting." explained his colleague, pointing at  different informations on the board.
"Well, nice job." appreciated Mycroft. "So that would lead to gang rivalries ?"
"Apparently  yes. We don't think that everyone in the crowd was actually part of the  two gangs that were affronting each other, we think that they had set  up this chaos in order to divert the police from their fights, knowing  that we wouldn't intervene on such a big gathering with only a few  under-armed officers and that it would take us time to amass our  troops." added Greg, picking up a chocolate doughnuts and biting it  joyfully.
"Your theory is to be proved but it actually could look  like something sensible yes ... But central London ? If they were from  South London, wouldn't it have been easier to fight directly there ?"  questioned the official.
"They were in an open war with a gang from North London known as Navaja.  They had other little war going on with other South London's gang but  this one was the biggest and it could explain the location." Hardy, the  most junior officer of the team replied.
"A neutral location. That  could make sense too ..." nodded the elder Holmes. "Well, I'm going to  let you to your investigation and drop by Trident to see if my services  can be of any helps to their surveillance. Good job ! Enjoy the food.".  He placed another kiss on Greg's cheek and turned away. "And don't let  him eat all the doughnuts ..." he added, pointing at his partner, before  leaving the office.

The next days of the team had been fully  occupied with the investigation of the Hyde Park's event but thankfully  enough no one else had died of their injuries and despite not willing to  collaborate with the police, the collect of their idea and of some DNA  sample allowed Greg and DI Kenzel to link them to the Navaja gang and to the Radders,  Ellie's gang, corroborating Greg's team hypothesis while the CCTV had  enabled the Trident team to formally identify more than fifty members  from both gangs.
The Commissioner willing to deal with this matter as  quickly as possible it had been decided to proceed to the arrest of all  the youngsters identified on the recording before dawn on Saturday  morning, directly at their place, or for most of them, who were still  teenagers, at their parent's place.
Once again, Kenzel and Gregory  had been appointed in charge of the organisation of the coordinated  intervention, their team being backed up by local officers and all the  intervention units available around London and in the nearby counties.  The fact of intervening in the forty-eight different place at the same  time was crucial as, as soon as they would be informed of the ongoing  operation, the members that hadn't still been arrested would try to  escape and hide, making them much harder to find.
Despite the early  hour of the morning and the fact that he had barely slept during the all  week, the detective was feeling quite happy and positive as he was  drinking a coffee in one of the meeting room of Sutton's police station,  waiting for the team he was supposed to lead a few hours latter to join  him for the last briefing they were to have before they spread across  the south of London over the 23 properties they were to search. For the  second time in a week he was to lead more than 300 officers through a  complicated and possibly dangerous operation but unlike last time he was  feeling quite confident, maybe because despite the short time they had  got to organise the operation, they till had got the possibility to have  well-trained and equipped officers with them this time and a bit less  pressure as they were going through their plan, not having a thousand of  rioters on the verge of burning everything down directly behind their  back.
As he was thinking that he could actually get used to lead such  important team, the first intervention squad with their commander  entered the room, quickly joined by the other participants and soon all  his forces were sat in front of him, the luckiest on chairs, the other on the desks, the window sill and the floor.
"Good morning sirs – and ladies, excuse my prejudice. -."  he started, trying to make abstraction of the 350 faces turned at him  in a quite intimidating vision. "I hope you are all feeling well and  rested because we have a long morning ahead, and a long day for those, I  don't think there is many of you in it, who are going to have to  interview all the suspected apprehended. As you've all already received  your particular assignation by squadron I'm not going to develop over it  but I warn you once again that it is crucial that the arrest are  coordinated and made as quickly as possible to avoid all rebellion of  anyone in the neighbourhood. The suspects are to be led to the closest  police station, it should have been written on your mission briefing  paper but if it haven't the squadron commander shall come to see me  before moving on location to get the exact address. If anyone in the  house that you are searching is showing signs of violence, not a mother  trying to slap your hands off her son, but something that could be  considered as an assault, you have the right to arrest them and hold  them in custody for rebellion. You are to stay on location until the  arrival of the forensic team or the uniforms officers, depending on the  location you are searching before leaving the premise. If anything is to  go wrong, the squadron commander is to contact me directly on my mobile  which number has been enclosed on your mission briefings. The radio  shall be set on canal 24. Thank you for your attention and good luck !"
The  squads departed one after the other and quickly Greg was the last one  to remain in the room. He took a deep breath and without exactly knowing  why signed himself, a gesture he haven't down since he was a child or  so, never being really involved in religion, before stepping out of the  room and joining his car. He was to supervise directly the arrest of  Jaime Spencer, a 19 years old suspected of being the head of the Radders  gang, and to give the go to the entire operation at 5.30 on the dot but  as the location he was to intervene on was quite close to the Sutton's  police station, he allowed himself to drop by a 24/7 café on the road  and enjoy a strong and over warm coffee to get himself through this cold  and tiring morning of the first day of December.

At half past  seven all the suspects had been apprehended and were now held in  custody, waiting for the team of officers that had been especially  requested for this task, to interview them, again under the joint  supervision of Greg and Denzel who, after their early morning activities  were now back at the Yard's building, not interviewing themselves but  gathered into a meeting room with a connection to every police stations  where some of their suspects were held. They both had spread their team  across the different stations to supervise directly the work of the  local agents and they were quite confident that they could go through  this unpleasant work before the end of the day. During this time, other  teams of forensics and uniforms officer were searching the premises of  those who had been arrested, looking out for weapons, drugs and anything  that could link the suspect to the Hyde Park events and a team was on  standby at Barts to proceed to the DNA analyses as quick as possible.
As  they had worried about, none of the suspect seemed to be really willing  to cooperate with the police and by noon, despite having already  interrogated nearly half of the suspects, they had quite nothing new  coming from the police stations, whilst the premises searches had been  way more conclusive and prolific, enough drugs and weapons for locking  up at least half of the suspects having yet been found, not to mention  the evidences that were starting to be analysed at Barts, mostly weapons  and clothes covered in blood stains, and that may be conclusive enough  to convict some of them about the murder of Eleanor McAodha and the  attempted murder of the 26 other gang members that were now detained at  the five hospitals where they were being treated.
Stretching out his  arms and yawning noisily, Gregory thought that as challenging this case  had been, he was quite satisfied with the way it had been dealt with and  that he had got quite a lot of pleasure to go back on the filed and to  lead large teams after having kept himself far from the groundwork since  he had been shot last spring. After all, if every available officers  hadn't been mobilized, he wouldn't have ended up leading this  investigation and those operations which proved him once more that  sometime surprise was a good thing and on the Saturday he was quite sure  he had lived the most important week of his career.