Morgan recognized steel when he saw it. ‘Radecki was a cancer that was spreading through Europe. When you find cancer, you cut it out. And sometimes that means you cut away healthy tissue too.’

‘So you did kill Katerina?’

‘Katerina was collateral damage. For the sake of the greater good,’ Morgan said cautiously.

‘And what about Colin Osborne? Was he collateral damage too?’

Morgan shook his head. ‘Osborne was no innocent abroad. You lie down with dogs, you get up with fleas. He hitched his wagon to Radecki, he paid the price.’

‘But you had him killed too?’

Morgan raised his eyebrows. ‘Carol, this isn’t playschool. These people are responsible for untold amounts of human misery. You can’t tell me you’re losing sleep over a piece of scum like Colin Osborne.’

‘You’re right. I don’t particularly care about some Essex gangster who traded in people’s lives. But I care about my life. I care that you set this whole black operation up because somebody somewhere told you there was an ambitious detective in the Met who was the spitting image of Katerina Basler. And you thought that was too good a chance to let it go by. You set me up for this. You wound me up and let me go, and all the time you knew there was a bomb underneath me waiting to go off.’ Carol’s voice was infused with cold rage.

Morgan stared down at the table. ‘I’m ashamed that you had to go through that, Carol. But if you’re asking me whether that’s an unacceptable trade-off for putting Radecki away and winding up his rackets, I’d have to say no.’

‘You bastard,’ she said quietly.

He looked up and met her eyes. ‘You’re a cop, Carol. It’s bred in the bone with you, just as it is with me. If our roles had been reversed, you’d have done exactly the same. And that’s what’s killing you right now. It’s not that I betrayed you. It’s that you know you’d wouldn’t have done anything different if you’d been calling the shots.’

Chapter 40

40

Every day, he was growing stronger. Tony could feel the vigour returning to his body as bone and muscle gradually healed. He was a long way from full fitness, but he no longer felt the debilitation of the first couple of days following his beating at the hands of Radecki and Krasic. He still moved stiffly and awkwardly, but at least he could walk around without feeling his body was about to fall to pieces.