They nodded. Belle looked them over, staggered by a wall of solid testosterone. One – the driver – was ginger-haired, one was portly and clean-shaven, one had big black muttonchop whiskers, another had heartbreaking dark eyes, one was built like a bear and the last was slight, blond and twitchy, very fast-moving. Six men, and they all looked like trouble; like they could handle themselves. They all had that same cool assessing stare; just like Jack’s.

‘Belle?’ Jack pulled her against him. ‘Meet the boys.’

‘Hi,’ she said. These were the people he must have been on the phone to this morning.

‘You said you needed an army,’ said Jack, giving her a squeeze. ‘You’ve got one. So what do you want to happen now?’

Belle looked at him. ‘First I’ve got to find someone.’

‘OK. We can do that.’

‘I’ll take first watch tonight, shall I?’ asked the big one Jack had called Tank.

‘Yeah. Good,’ said Jack.

140

Harlan had been waiting a long time for this moment; he was ready for it. The Air Accident Investigations people called on him at the Essex house. They watched him gravely as they sat and discussed the helicopter crash.

‘We are sorry to have to tell you, Mr Stone, that there was an explosive device on board your parents’ aircraft, which caused catastrophic damage. There was no hope of the occupants surviving the crash.’

Harlan nodded.

‘So tell me, Mr Stone, do you have knowledge of anyone with a grudge against either of your parents?’ the older of the two asked. He was bespectacled. Jowly. Sporting an office pallor. He wore a tired tweed jacket and shiny beige trousers and a sympathetic but somehow suspicious expression.

‘Well, no.’

‘You’re sure?’

Harlan could think of many, many people who would have wanted his adopted father dead. Rival drug lords; there were many of them and the market would only accommodate so many before the whole thing burst apart like a rotten carcass. That had been Charlie’s worry for years. When you were in one of the top slots, there was always some bastard looking to knock you off it. Now the problem would be Harlan’s, instead. Well, he could hack it. He had plenty of foot soldiers around him.

Then his thoughts turned to Nipper and Ludo. Where the hell were those tossers? Give them a job to do and they fucked off out of it and left you in the dark. They should have come back to base with news long since. But there had been nothing. He promised himself that when the two of them finally showed up here, he was going to rip each of them a brand-new arsehole.

‘My father was a respected businessman. Well liked. Popular,’ said Harlan.

‘We will be passing the matter over to the police now for further investigation,’ said the younger AAI man, eyeing Harlan steadily.