The meeting got underway as soon as he arrived at the office, and he found it hard not to feel sorry for the men sitting with him around the table. They were his loyal lieutenants, after all. Several of them – Frank Piper, Adam Clarke and Johnny Lightfoot – had been with him for years. And they had done their bit to ensure that the firm thrived and prospered.

But they now faced an uncertain future through no fault of their own.

After he was gone the firm would in all likelihood fall apart. Danny had made it clear that he wasn’t going to hang around with a view to taking over. As soon as Slack gave him the go-ahead – and the rest of the money he’d been promised – he was going to flee to South America and carve out a new life for himself.

The rest of the lads were going to be left to pick up the pieces. And that wasn’t going to be easy. The Old Bill would no doubt seek their own form of retribution after the bloodbath finally ended and they got wind of his suicide note.

Piper and the others were going to find it hard to convince anyone that they hadn’t known that their boss had ordered the killings. The cops might well accuse them of being involved. And even if there were no formal charges, the lads were going to be in for a rough ride.

But none of this stopped Slack from lying through his teeth when he was asked if he knew anything about the murder of DI Dave Prentiss and the threats against other members of the task force and their families. The media hadn’t yet linked these with the murder in Clapham earlier in the evening.

‘Believe me, I’m as much in the dark as you are,’ Slack said, sounding as sincere as an evangelist. ‘I don’t know who’s behind it. So I can only assume it’s one of the other outfits, probably the Russians. They know the task force will be going after them as well.’

It was a plausible enough explanation and the guys appeared to accept it. But then why wouldn’t they? Slack had always been up front with them in the past and he had looked after their interests. They also knew that to question his honesty was a sure way to wind up in hospital.

The thing was, he didn’t feel that he owed them anything beyond what they’d already had from him. Under his leadership they had made pots of money. It was how they could afford to live in fancy houses and drive around in flash cars.

It’d be different if they were family. But they weren’t. Thanks to the Old Bill he didn’t have a family.