Flaming with rage, she opened the door of the car and stomped out to give him a piece of her mind.

‘What the hell do you think you’re playing at?’ she said, reaching for her warrant card. ‘You have no idea how much trouble you have got yourself in …’

The window of the Vectra hissed as it rolled down, and the man reached out of the window and held up a mobile phone.

‘My boss wants a word with you.’

Collins snatched the phone knowing exactly who would be on the other end of it. The man’s tactics suddenly made perfect sense. He had been checking that no one else was in the car with her and that she was not being followed.

‘Hello, Princess,’ said the voice of Jack Stanley.

‘This your idea of a joke?’

‘Do I sound like I’m laughing? What the hell do you want?’

‘I want to know when I’m going to see Sophie again.’

‘And for that you try to get me run off the road?’

‘You’re the one who says it’s too dangerous for us to be seen together. This seemed to be the best way.’

‘You don’t deserve to be a father, not the way you’re behaving. You’re still a child yourself.’

‘Save the lectures for someone who cares. I want to see my daughter. It’s been more than a month. I’m fed up with playing your silly little games.’

Collins took a deep breath. She needed to calm down. ‘Look, Jack, it’s just too dangerous. There are too many things going on right now.’

‘Nothing that we can’t handle. I managed to keep my face off the radar up until now. I don’t see how it makes any difference. I can take the same precautions.’

‘I’m sorry, Jack. I just can’t allow it. I’ve spoken to Sophie –’

‘Don’t give me any crap about her not wanting to see me. I know that won’t be true.’

‘You’re right, she does want to see you, but I’ve explained the situation to her and she understands that for the time being it just can’t happen. Now if she can understand that and she’s only thirteen, why can’t you?’

Jack Stanley slammed his thumb against the red button on his phone to end the call and stood fuming for a few moments in the back office of his night club.

He was having a hard time concentrating on the business end of things. Ever since he had learned that he had a daughter everything in his life had seemed to change. The idea of a family and that kind of domesticity had never appealed to him and he had gone out of his way to avoid it, but this was different. Here was a ready-made teenager who wanted him to be part of her life. It was as if he was catching up on everything he had missed out on. And he was loving it.

He tossed the phone into a drawer and went out into the main bar area. More than three hundred teenagers and youngsters were gyrating to the latest UK garage sounds in the middle of the dance floor. Stanley made his way through them and headed to the bar, where his right-hand man, Danny Thompson, was leaning back nursing a scotch and soda.

‘You all right, Jack? You look like you’ve swallowed a wasp.’

‘I’m fine.’

‘You don’t look it, boss.’

‘Leave it. I’m fine.’

‘Woman trouble?’

‘Yeah, you could say that.’

‘That’s why I stick with lapdancers and the like. Don’t have enough brains to cause any trouble. You want to talk about it?’

‘Nah.’

Thompson took a long slug of his drink and eyed his boss carefully. They had been friends since childhood and he knew him well enough to know that something was really bugging him, but also well enough to know that there was no point in pressing him any further about it. If he wanted to talk, he would do so in his own time. Instead, Thompson waited until Stanley had got a drink of his own and then decided to change the subject.

‘I was speaking to Mitch on the Peacroft today. Said a couple more of the Albanians turned up, trying to undercut our dealers.’

Stanley slowly turned to Thompson. ‘Any trouble?’

‘Bit of a scrap. One of them went away in an ambulance. I don’t think they’ll be back.’

‘That’s what we thought last time.’

‘True.’

‘I don’t think this is just a bunch of chancers any more. They’re too well organized. They know too much about our prices and dealing set-up. The way they’re probing, I think they’re looking for a weak spot so they can make their move.’

‘You think they’re trying to take over the Peacroft?’ asked Thompson.

Stanley shook his head. ‘I know a little about the Albanians. I think their ambitions go a bit further than that. Their classic tactic is to establish a small foothold somewhere and then use that as a base from which to expand their operations. If we’re not careful, they could end up coming after everything we’ve got. They don’t work like us. The whole lot of them are cousins and brothers and uncles, it’s like the fucking Mafia.’

‘What are you saying?’

‘I’m saying that blood is thicker than water and this lot have got it by the bucket load. They can call on people and rely on them in a way that we could never hope to do. I can get a man to do a job for a fair price, but I can’t expect him to do it just out of loyalty.’

‘So what should we do?’

‘Not sure. They’ve got to be getting information from somewhere. One of our dealers must be feeding them stuff, but it must be someone low down. From what I know, they’re trying to find out who’s in charge of the operation so they can work out a way to take out the top man. The thing is, I’m too well insulated. Even most of the dealers on the Peacroft have no idea who they’re working for, so the Albanians aren’t going to get anywhere with that strategy.’

‘What do you suggest?’

‘We need to reassert our authority on the place. I want to hit them hard, a decisive blow so that they get the message they can’t fuck about in our territory, but before we can do that we need to plug the gap. No point in planning a major action if they’re going to find out about it in advance. They’ll be waiting for us.’

‘So we’re still back to square one. Looking for the leak. Any new leads?’

‘Nah. And my sources at the Yard seem to have dried up for the time being. Something will come. In the meantime, double the workforce on the Peacroft and put more lads down there, just in case they come back.’

‘Tooled up?’

Stanley thought for a moment, then shook his head slowly. ‘Put a couple of shooters in the safe house just in case but I don’t want anyone carrying on the street. At the moment it’s off the police radar. It won’t stay that way if people start turning up dead.’

‘I think we both know that’s inevitable. You need to start watching your own back too.’

‘Don’t you worry about me.’

Thompson took another sip from his glass. ‘You know you’ve been letting things slip. You don’t want to appear weak.’

‘Not a chance, Danny Boy. I’m stronger than ever.’

5

‘You don’t mind if I listen to my iPod on the way, do you, Mum?’

It wasn’t really a question. By the time Sophie Collins clambered into the passenger seat of the car for the school run, she had already fitted one of the slim white earpieces and was in the process of doing the same with the other.

Stacey forced out a sweet smile. ‘That’s fine, love. In fact it’s perfect. That way you can listen to your music, I can listen to the news, and we won’t get on each other’s nerves.’

Sophie smiled back, finished inserting the remaining earpiece and switched on the controls. She then sat back in her seat and closed her eyes. Stacey knew there would be no more conversation until a brief goodbye when they arrived at the school gates.

Ever since they had had their conversation about Jack Stanley, a certain chill had descended on her relationship with her daughter. They still got on well enough on a day-to-day basis, but it felt as though Sophie was keeping her mother at arm’s length. The iPod in particular had become something of a wedge between them, driving them apart even when they were physically together.