to me.’
Aidan had a knack for saying things that stirred my emotions and made me want to make love to him. And if my mother hadn’t been with us I would have dragged him upstairs to the bedroom and done just that.
Instead it was going to have to wait until after he had taken her home.
But as always she was keen to be off as soon as she’d finished dinner.
‘Are you sure you don’t want a coffee?’ I asked her.
She shook her head. ‘It’s almost seven and you know I like to be in bed by eight during the week. But thank you for a lovely evening.’
‘It’s been our pleasure,’ Aidan said, as he pushed back his chair and stood up.
At that moment his mobile pinged with an incoming text message. It was lying next to me on the table so I picked it up and handed it to him.
While he checked it I started clearing the dishes but then stopped suddenly when I heard him gasp.
‘What’s wrong?’ I said, turning back to him with a plate in each hand.
He looked up, his eyes bulging, his mouth agape.
‘What in Christ’s name does this mean?’ he said and held the phone towards me.
I put the plates down and grabbed the phone. And as I started reading the text every muscle in my body went still.
This morning I sent the following message to every detective on the organised crime task force. Thought you should know.
It was the same message with the same unambiguous threat.
‘Is this for real, Laura?’ Aidan asked, thrusting his chin towards my mother. ‘Are our lives in danger?’
Slack
He was on his second pint when Danny called him on his mobile.
‘I’m sorry for the delay, boss. The plane got stuck in a holding pattern over the airport for ages. Then we had to contend with the bloody rush hour.’
‘Where are you now?’
‘I’m just checking her into the hotel. What about you?’
‘I’m in the pub. Arrived about half an hour ago.’
‘Great. We should be there in ten minutes.’
It was why that particular hotel had been chosen. It needed to be within walking distance of the pub.
‘What about the second text message?’ Slack said. ‘Did it get sent?’
‘It did. I had confirmation a few minutes ago.’
The second message had been Danny’s idea. He’d come up with it late last night as a way of raising the fear factor even before the killings began. It was sent to those people close to the detectives whose phone numbers they’d been able to obtain.
‘Just so you know, boss, I’ve not had a chance to talk to Jack about the gear,’ Danny said.
‘Don’t worry. He’s taken delivery of everything and it’s all out the back.’
Jack Pickering was the pub landlord and he worked for Slack who owned the building. There was a yard at the rear with a lock-up garage that the firm made extensive use of. It was the perfect place to store the stuff that Rosa Lopez needed to do her job.
After hanging up, Slack sipped at his beer and looked out the window. The evening rush hour was over, but in this part of Lambeth the roads were still busy.
It had taken them almost an hour to get here from Dulwich – a distance of about four miles. On the way he’d told Mike to drive past the house where Terry Malone had lived and died.
It had made him feel sad and yet pleased with himself at the same time. Sad because of what had happened to Terry and pleased because he’d been able to avenge his untimely death.
He didn’t give a toss about that gun-toting copper or his family. The bastard determined his own fate when he shot a defenceless Terry in cold blood.
Just six months ago Slack wouldn’t have cared. He’d never met Terry and had no idea that he’d worked for the Romanians in North London before the gang’s leaders were snared by the task force.
But then, out of the blue, he got a call from an old girlfriend who was in Guy’s Hospital having suffered a severe stroke.
Chloe Malone had begged him to visit her, saying she had something important to tell him. So he’d gone along out of curiosity and she’d revealed that just after they’d split up twenty-six years ago she’d discovered she was pregnant. Eight months later she gave birth to a boy.
‘He’s your son, Roy,’ she’d told him. ‘I want you to know now because there have been serious complications and I might have only days to live. And Terry needs someone to look out for him, otherwise he’ll end up dead or in jail.’
She’d gone on to say that she didn’t tell him about the baby because their relationship had ended badly after he decided to dump her for another woman.
‘It would never have worked out,’ she’d said. ‘You would have wanted the baby but not me. I was sure that you would have made my life a misery or even taken steps to get rid of me.’
To say that he’d been shocked would have been a gross understatement. The revelation had shaken him to the core. He was angry with her even though he knew that what she’d said was true.
Their affair had lasted five months. It was fun but he’d never loved her and when someone better came along he dropped her like a hot brick.
Before he left the hospital she gave him a letter she’d written to Terry in which she disclosed that Slack was his father.
‘I’m not going to tell him before I die,’ she’d said. ‘That wouldn’t be fair, if you decide that you want nothing to do with him. But if you do want to be part of his life then show him the letter.’
Three days later she passed away and for weeks afterwards he wasn’t sure what to do or whether or not to even believe her.
So he made enquiries, found out that Terry was looking for work, and got the lads to recruit him onto the firm. Then he took steps to secretly obtain samples of his DNA, which confirmed what Chloe had said.
That was when it really hit home that he had a son. The effect on him was profound. Julie had never been able to conceive and he had always wanted a child.
So he came to a decision. He would promote the lad within the firm and get to know him. And then when he felt the time was right he would drop the bombshell and show him Chloe’s letter.
After that he would groom Terry to be his successor. The idea pleased and excited him, and suddenly he had a purpose in life other than making money.
But then something happened that changed everything and that was why he confided in Terry that night in the club.
He gave him the letter from his mother and told him that he wanted him to eventually take charge of the firm. And he told him why his plan had been brought forward.
Naturally the lad reacted as though he’d received a jolt of electricity. But Slack had assured him that he had what it took and that it was meant to be.
‘So go home and think about it, son,’ he’d said. ‘Your mother asked me to look out for you and that’s exactly what I plan to do. You and my grandchild will have a bright and prosperous future. And you’ll want for nothing.’
They were the last words he said to Terry. Hours later the lad was dead.
Rosa Lopez was