Contents (83)
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- FORTY-ONE
- FORTY-TWO
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-THREE
- FORTY-FOUR
- FORTY-FIVE
- FORTY-SIX
- FORTY-SEVEN
- FORTY-EIGHT
- FORTY-NINE
- FIFTY
- FIFTY-ONE
- FIFTY-TWO
- FIFTY-THREE
- FIFTY-FOUR
- FIFTY-FIVE
- FIFTY-SIX
- FIFTY-SEVEN
- FIFTY-EIGHT
- FIFTY-NINE
- SIXTY
- SIXTY-ONE
- SIXTY-TWO
- SIXTY-THREE
- SIXTY-FOUR
- SIXTY-FIVE
- SIXTY-SIX
- SIXTY-SEVEN
- SIXTY-EIGHT
- SIXTY-NINE
- SEVENTY
- SEVENTY-ONE
- SEVENTY-TWO
- SEVENTY-THREE
- SEVENTY-FOUR
- SEVENTY-FIVE
- SEVENTY-SIX
- SEVENTY-SEVEN
- SEVENTY-EIGHT
- SEVENTY-NINE
- Acknowledgements
- OUT NOW IN PAPERBACK
‘OK,’ he finally said. ‘OK. Then I guess you’ve been through worse in your past, eh?’
‘Worse than losing Steve?’ Levy’s eyes remained fixed on Rogers’ as she replied. She knew what he was referencing. Her past in Israel, ‘No, sir. The people I’ve lost before, I lost them in a war zone. In a place where any one of us could have been killed on any day. You lose someone there, it hurts but it’s . . . well . . . it’s what you expect. Not like this. Not the way Steve went. I’ve never experienced anything close to that. And Karl Hirst is going to wish I still hadn’t.’
A few minutes later Levy walked into Conference Room Four on the second floor of New Scotland Yard.
The inevitable barrage of camera flashes marked her arrival. They continued as she followed Rogers to the long table positioned ahead of a temporary blue partition wall.
Levy sat in the centre, with Rogers and Chadwick on either side. She looked down at her notes. Aware that video cameras and voice recorders were running. For a moment she was distracted by her own jacket cuffs. By the ornate silver buttons on black fabric. It was rare that Levy wore her formal uniform. It was usually only for press conferences, and she did most of those alongside Steve Hale.
Another reminder of what she had lost.
The slightest touch of Rogers’ hand on her own broke through. Levy looked up and began.
‘At 10 p.m. yesterday evening five members of the Greater Manchester Constabulary were murdered in and around a residential home in Salford. Ordinarily, jurisdiction over this tragic event would be taken by the Greater Manchester Police. However, I can inform you that the officers were in fact on duty and on location on behalf of Scotland Yard’s Major Investigation Team, providing temporary protection for a person we believed to be the likely target of attack: Miss Jessica Boon.
‘The individual we believed to be a threat to Miss Boon was convicted killer Karl Hirst. We will be distributing a number of photographs of Karl Hirst at the conclusion of this press conference and we will request that these be displayed as a matter of urgency on every real and online news resource available to the people in this room, and to the networks that employ you. For now I can offer you this single photograph, taken shortly before Karl Hirst was released from custody three years ago following fourteen years of a life sentence.’
Levy held up a copy of the photograph. There was little that was exceptional about the man it showed. Short – five foot seven according to Levy’s records – and slim, with a full head of thick, dirty blonde hair and a messy mouth housing teeth better suited to somewhere bigger. But even from a distance his cold, pale eyes stood out. Their disquieting effect was made worse by those cameras that zoomed in for a closer view.