Shaw shook his head. ‘Like I said, the less you know the better. And the advantage of this procurement route…’ the last two words spoken with an edge of humour ‘…is that the weapons involved are clean. Whiter than white. Serial numbers erased. We could leave the whole lot in those arches, when the job is done. Because they’re untraceable. Good kit too. Only the best for some intelligence services. And none of the crap their domestic industry turns out.’

His comrades came back to the car after an hour. All three laden with heavy tool bags.

‘It was all still there.’ Darren talking to Shaw as he lifted his bags into the Discovery’s capacious boot. ‘And the bugs we planted for our client are still working.’ Passing Shaw a small black box. ‘The jammer worked perfectly. This is all still perfect black.’

Mickey pondered that statement and decided to keep his mouth firmly shut. Shaw laughed softly at his carefully neutral expression.

‘We’ll put them back when we’ve finished with them. Minus whatever ammunition we use, of course. The odds are that they’ll never notice a few missing bullets. And besides, what are they going to do. Complain to MI5?’

50

‘So what the fuck’s so important we all had to meet tonight? And who’s your new friend?’

Deano, pint in hand, gave Shaw a hard stare. That clearly troubled him not the slightest. Mickey, knowing there was no time for any other approach, dived straight in. Having called all three and requested their presence in the Carpenter’s as a matter of urgency.

‘I’m going to tell you something. Something I’ve done. Something I need your help with.’

Deano snorted in a knowing tone of voice. Probably thinking Mickey had been caught over the side. And that Shaw was his lawyer or some such.

‘Yeah, you’ve fucked up. Whatevs. Just spill it, we’ll deal with it.’

‘No, hang on.’ Den, his eyes narrowed. ‘This is something proper serious. Isn’t it?’

Mickey nodded, grim-faced. ‘Yeah. If killing gangsters is proper serious, then yes, it is.’

Steve was first to get it. He leaned forward with a look of dawning comprehension and disbelief. ‘That was you?’

‘What…?’ Deano shook his head disbelievingly. ‘You’re trying to tell us that you’re the fucking Car Park Killer? It’s been you going after…’

Den raised a hand. ‘Keep it down, Deano. You keep ramping up the volume, the whole pub’s gonna be listening.’

Which got him a glare from Deano. But which also lowered Deano’s volume several notches.

‘That was actually you? You shot Warren? You did the Car Park thing? You raided that tom training house?’

‘Yeah. And I killed Lewis Dearlove too.’

Steve, freshly incredulous. ‘Lewis? We didn’t even know he was missing.’