It was the taking them out that was the tricky thing. Taking them out and making sure the people who worked for them understood the economics of the deal. After all, his education had taught him that as long as people earned, they would happily work for whoever provided that earn. They lived in a Thatcherite society; you give me a good wage, and I’ll swallow my knob and work for you instead. It was the way things worked now. It wasn’t the sixties any more, and the sooner people realised that, the better off they would all be. It was like living in a fucking bubble; the old values were all right in their day, but this was the eighties, and anyone with a sawn-off and a few quid could walk in anywhere and get a decent hearing. The days of gentlemen villains was long gone; they were banged up, and wouldn’t see the light of day until the fucking Jews returned to Zion, that’s how remote their release dates were. They had been put away for the duration, judges had taken it upon themselves to rid the country of some of its best earners. Legal earners at that; for all their skulduggery they had been proper earners as well – good, decent taxpayers. None of them had ever signed on the dole or asked for a fucking handout.

It was a new world, with a whole new set of rules and regulations; the old guard were gone and forgotten. This was really about the survival of the fittest, and Jonny Parker knew he was fitter than most. He was going to play them all at their own game, and they would understand that this was not a dress rehearsal, this was the real thing.

He had planned it down to the last detail, and all he had to do now was make sure it was executed with the minimum of fuss and the maximum of terror. Fear was the best way to ensure the complete devotion of everyone concerned. Fear had its own rewards – that cunt of a sister-in-law had learned that the hard way. Without realising it she had taught him a good lesson: it was the people nearest you who were the real danger. It was something he would never forget. The shock of her revelations to the Filth had made him take a step back and look at his workforce and their relatives very closely. In her own way, that two-faced ponce Cynthia had shown him the chinks in his armour. He had understood then just how easy it was for outsiders to know far too much about his businesses.