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Back A Change of Circumstance Save as PDF
Chapters (67)
  1. Cover
  2. One
  3. Two
  4. Three
  5. Four
  6. Five
  7. Six
  8. Seven
  9. Eight
  10. Nine
  11. Ten
  12. Eleven
  13. Twelve
  14. Thirteen
  15. Fourteen
  16. Fifteen
  17. Sixteen
  18. Seventeen
  19. Eighteen
  20. Nineteen
  21. Twenty
  22. Twenty-One
  23. Twenty-Two
  24. Twenty-Three
  25. Twenty-Four
  26. Twenty-Five
  27. Twenty-Six
  28. Twenty-Seven
  29. Twenty-Eight
  30. Twenty-Nine
  31. Thirty
  32. Thirty-One
  33. Thirty-Two
  34. Thirty-Three
  35. Thirty-Four
  36. Thirty-Five
  37. Thirty-Six
  38. Thirty-Seven
  39. Thirty-Eight
  40. Thirty-Nine
  41. Forty
  42. Forty-One
  43. Forty-Two
  44. Forty-Three
  45. Forty-Four
  46. Forty-Five
  47. Forty-Six
  48. Forty-Seven
  49. Forty-Eight
  50. Forty-Nine
  51. Fifty
  52. Fifty-One
  53. Fifty-Two
  54. Fifty-Three
  55. Fifty-Four
  56. Fifty-Five
  57. Fifty-Six
  58. Fifty-Seven
  59. Fifty-Eight
  60. Fifty-Nine
  61. Sixty
  62. Sixty-One
  63. Sixty-Two
  64. Sixty-Three
  65. Sixty-Four
  66. Sixty-Five
  67. Sixty-Six

It was looking good. Vince Roper wanted to be a snout and Serrailler had often mistrusted the breed because of their motives, though he was not too worried if that was chiefly money. Trouble came when it was, as so often, about revenge, wanting to pay someone back, get even, which was understandable but it meant the snout was harder to control, to keep walking the line marked out for him, not veer off onto one of his own.

But if he’d been speaking the truth, Roper’s motive was good, and though some desire for revenge was in the mix, it was straightforward – he wanted the man who was trying to groom his young son and rope him into being part of the drug scene, a lowly postboy carrying gear from A and delivering it to B. How many kids like him were now in their clutches? If Roper could infiltrate even a single section of the organisation and pass on some sound information, he was going to be worth signing up and nurturing.

The Chief, with several of his opposite numbers from adjacent forces, was planning a conference for senior officers, in both uniform and CID, on coming up with new strategies for getting on top of it all. Simon thought privately that such meetings often produced a lot of hot air, a cluster of hopeless suggestions, and maybe a couple that had legs. He would attend, of course, he had to, but his faith in the old-fashioned method of handling a good snout was resolute, because he had found them too useful too often to believe that they might become obsolete.

If Vince Roper was on his mind, Roper led back to Starly, and the reopened inquiry into the death of Liam Payne. He needed to look at the scene again from the fresh perspective the second post-mortem had given him. It was now possible someone had been with Liam and either injected the overdose of heroin there or done so elsewhere and then taken his body to the flat – which seemed to Simon, as he brooded on it while getting ready to leave, an unlikely scenario. It was half past four, so he should get to the Chinese pharmacy while it was open.