‘No, I don’t think so. I’d like to go if you don’t mind. I’m feeling rather tired. These past few days have been something of a strain.’

The Mini-Cooper was in for servicing and he was using his brother’s E-type Jaguar that day. She was suitably impressed. ‘I didn’t know police pay had improved quite this much.’

‘It hasn’t,’ he said as he handed her in and closed the door. ‘This belongs to my brother. He has more money than he knows what to do with and he worries about me.’

He took the car out into the main traffic stream expertly. ‘You’re a teacher, aren’t you?’

She nodded. ‘That’s right. Dock Street Secondary Modern. I took the day off.’

‘A pretty rough neighbourhood.’

‘Good experience. They’re pulling the school down soon. There’ll be a new Comprehensive opening about half a mile away.’

They drove in silence for a while and then he said, ‘You don’t think your father will try to do anything silly, do you?’

She frowned. ‘What on earth do you mean?’

‘I wasn’t too happy about that conversation we had back at the pub. All that stuff about taking the law into one’s own hands when society falls down on the job.’

‘It’s worth a thought, isn’t it?’

Miller shook his head. ‘Not if he wants to stay alive. Max Vernon’s a powerful, ruthless criminal without the slightest scruples about who he hurts or how he does it. He’d crush your father like an ant under his foot.’

She turned on him, her mouth slack with amazement. ‘Crush Duncan Craig – that worm?’ She laughed wildly. ‘Don’t you know who my father is? If he’s made the decision I think he has, then Maxwell Vernon is a dead man walking.’

7

When Monica Grey opened her door and found Duncan Craig standing there, she tried to close it quickly, but he was inside before she could stop him.

She backed away, her throat going dry, and he shook his head slowly. ‘I’m not going to hurt you, I’m not going to harm you in any way. Just sit down like a good girl and listen to me.’

Suddenly she was no longer afraid. In fact for some strange reason she felt like crying and she did as she was told and slumped down on the bed.

‘You lied at the inquest, didn’t you?’

‘I had to. God knows what would have happened to me if I hadn’t done as I was told.’

‘Then your original statement to Sergeant Miller was true? It was Max Vernon who first gave my daughter heroin?’

‘It had to be him,’ she said. ‘It couldn’t have been anyone else.’

‘And Vernon who continued to supply her.’

She nodded. ‘One of his little sidelines.’

‘You know a great deal about him, don’t you?’