When she was detained in a juvenile detention centre after her first murder she saw three counsellors and they all agreed that her traumatic childhood was to blame for her damaged soul – as if that hadn’t always been strikingly obvious.

‘There’s a nightclub I can recommend,’ Miguel said. ‘It’s always busy, especially in the run-up to Christmas.’

‘Then take me there,’ she said.

On the way she phoned Carlos as arranged.

‘It’s done,’ she said. ‘You’ll have no more trouble from those two.’

‘You are a star, Rosa,’ he said. ‘I knew I could trust you not to let me down.’

‘I’ll stay over tonight and head back in the morning.’

‘Well, actually there’s been a change of plan,’ he said. ‘You’ve got a new assignment. It’s in London of all places and there’s a big bonus in it for you.’

‘How big?’

‘Half a million dollars.’

‘That’s a lot of money, Carlos.’

‘This job is special, Rosa. And you could be there for a while.’

After he’d filled her in, she said, ‘I’ve always wanted to go to London. When do they want me there?’

‘Tomorrow. So you’ll need to get moving. We have a private jet on standby at Acapulco airport. Flight time to Mexico City is just over an hour. There’s a British Airways flight to London at eleven ten. A first class ticket’s been reserved. Think you can make it?’

‘Of course.’

‘Good. Then buy whatever you need at the airport or when you get there.’

Rosa’s job for the cartel involved a lot of travel, usually within Mexico and the States. But in recent years she’d also had assignments in Canada, Columbia and Brazil. This would be her first trip to Europe and there was no way she was going to turn it down.

‘Call me when you’re in Mexico City and I’ll give you more details,’ Cruz said.

After hanging up she told Miguel that she’d be going back to the hotel after all, but only to pack. She then wanted him to take her to the airport. A late night was now out of the question. She was disappointed, for sure, but that was the nature of the game she was in. Business always had to come before pleasure.

8

Laura

I felt pretty good the next morning, so I was glad I hadn’t drunk too much the night before.

It was another cold day and the sky over London was a nauseous grey.

Aidan and I left the house together before heading in different directions. On the way to the tube station I popped into Sainsbury’s to get a card to mark the birth of Dave Prentiss’s baby. While there I noticed that Harry Fuller’s jail sentence featured on the front pages of most of the newspapers. The headlines made for pleasant reading:

London gangster gets 30 years