LITMIR.BIZ

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years. The poor sod might as well top himself because he won’t ever be coming out.’

      Danny was his most trusted enforcer, a fifty-five-year-old former mercenary whose nickname in the underworld was The Rottweiler. He was a thickset individual with a boxer’s physique and a well-deserved reputation as a violent psychopath, qualities that made him perfect for the job he did.

      ‘My money was on a fifteen stretch, boss,’ he said. ‘But we should have guessed the bastards would use the poor bugger to send a message to us.’

      Slack nodded. Danny was right. This was a crude example of the police and the judicial system working together to show they meant business.

      ‘The wankers are mistaken if they think it’ll have me shitting in my pants,’ Slack said. ‘Harry Fuller was a fairly easy target, but I won’t be.’

      The two men, who were alone in the office, turned their attention back to the TV screen.

      Sky News were reporting live from outside the Old Bailey and DCS George Drummond was still responding to questions. He was a smooth-looking bastard who clearly had an inflated opinion of himself.

      Slack had met the man on two occasions and he knew their paths would cross again.

      ‘Seems to me that what that bloke is saying amounts to a declaration of all-out war,’ Danny said.

      Slack leaned back in his padded leather chair and swung his shoes up onto the desk.

      ‘That’s exactly what it is, Danny,’ he said. ‘And if it’s a war they want, then it’s a war they’re gonna get.’

      He’d known what was coming ever since the Home Office announced a major new offensive against organised crime in London. It was essentially a political move over widespread concern that the problem had got out of hand.

      There had been an epidemic of gun and knife crime in the capital, and during the past three years no less than thirty people had been murdered during gang turf wars.

      The press had also been making a big thing of the fact that the annual cost of organised crime on the London economy was now running at billions of pounds.

      The task force that was put together was well resourced and had managed to rack up some early successes, Harry Fuller being the biggest scalp so far.

      Before him there was Paul Mason, who’d run the East London mob for five years. And before Mason there were the Romanian brothers – Stefan and Anton Severin – who were known as the kings of crack cocaine north of the Thames.

      Slack didn’t shed a tear for any of them. They were rivals, after all, and he’d been mopping up some of their business. But the downfall of such heavyweight villains was a sure sign that this time he couldn’t afford to be complacent.

      The task force presented a credible threat to his illicit empire, which was spread across all of South London, as well as the lucrative West End.

      But clinging on to what he’d built up over many years wasn’t the real driving force behind what he was planning.

      And neither was fear of ending up behind bars like Harry Fuller and the others.

      What Slack intended to do was motivated by something far more profound and much closer to his heart.

      Revenge.

      Slack hadn’t yet told anyone what he planned to do but that was about to change because he was going to confide in Danny Carver. He needed Danny to help him put the wheels in motion.

      Now that the Fuller trial had ended they’d be coming after him with all guns blazing.

      There’d be raids on his businesses and the homes of his employees and associates. Surveillance would be stepped up, all his financial affairs would be probed like never before, and the bastards would cause as much disruption as possible to his operations.

      They’d push and squeeze and threaten in their desperate search for something to use against him. And if they weren’t successful then he wouldn’t put it past them to fit him up.

      They were probably expecting him to batten down the hatches before pissing off to his villa on the Costa del Sol. So they were going to get a big fucking shock when he retaliated by launching a pre-emptive strike.

      ‘The slags won’t know what’s hit them, babe,’ he said to the framed photo on his desk. ‘Mine is going to be the loudest swansong this city has ever heard.’

      His late wife’s smiling face stared back at him and brought a lump to his throat. Even after all this time he still found it hard to accept that Julie was gone.

      The photo was taken on their honeymoon in Capri twenty-three years ago. They were standing together with the sea in the background and he had his arm around her shoulders.

      She’d been at her most gorgeous then – blonde and tanned and slim, with a face that had squeezed his heart the moment he’d laid eyes on it.

      Back then he hadn’t been so bad looking himself. His hair had been thick and black and there’d been no fat on his frame or lines on his face.

      Now, at the age of fifty-seven, his hair was grey and wispy and he had a gut the size of a rugby ball. Years of hard living were evident in the creases on his forehead and neck, and in the dark pouches beneath his eyes.

      ‘You need to speak up, boss. I didn’t catch what you just said.’

      Danny’s voice snapped him out of himself and he wrenched his attention away from the photo.

      ‘Sorry, mate,’ he said. ‘I was miles away and mumbling to myself.’

      Danny was sitting on the sofa below the window that offered up a view of the rooftops of Rotherhithe. He leaned forward and picked up the TV remote from the coffee table in front of him. He used it to mute the sound of the Sky News reporter who was summing up what had happened at the Old Bailey.

      ‘This is serious shit, boss,’ he said. ‘So I think it’s time you told me how the fuck you intend to respond.’

      Slack clamped his lips together and nodded. ‘You’re right, Danny old son. But what I’m going to say is just between you and me, at least to start with. I don’t want the other lads to freak out before the fun even begins.’

       3

      Laura

      The media circus outside the court ended as quickly as it had begun. After giving his interview, DCS Drummond was whisked away in a car driven by someone from the Crown Prosecution Service.

      Harry’s Fuller’s lawyer then made a brief statement announcing that they’d be appealing both the conviction and sentence, but he refused to answer any questions.

      Kate and I were both on a high as we walked to her car. It was a terrific feeling knowing that we’d helped to end the career of another vicious mobster.

      At times like this I realised why I loved being a copper. But it wasn’t just the exhilarating sense of achievement. It was also another result in honour of my dear departed dad.

      I knew he would have been proud of me, and it was such an awful shame that he couldn’t tell me how much.

      He was still alive back when I followed in his footsteps and joined the force twelve years ago. He’d risen to the rank of detective chief inspector in Lewisham CID, and he’d always been my inspiration.

      ‘Policing is a noble profession, sweetheart,’ he told me when I announced my intention to enrol on leaving university. ‘But as you and your mother know only too well it’ll take over your life. So you need to be one hundred per cent certain that it’s what you want to do.’

      ‘It is,’ I said.

      ‘In that case you’ll have my full support. But

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