Danny then handed her the key to the garage. It was attached to a plastic keyring that enclosed a photo of the pub’s exterior and the words: Three Crowns, Vauxhall. They then stepped outside, and Rosa locked up.

‘Would you like another drink?’ Slack asked her.

She shook her head. ‘No, thank you. I need to go back to the hotel to start planning. And since this is my first time in London I have to get my bearings.’

‘Well, if there’s anything else you need you only have to ask.’

‘There is something I need to know,’ she said. ‘Do you want to be the one who decides who I target and when? Or are you leaving that to me?’

‘That’s your call, Rosa,’ he said. ‘You have the names and plenty of information on all of them. The only thing I ask is that you don’t hang around.’

‘No problem,’ she said. ‘All being well I’ll start tomorrow.’

15

Laura

‘I can’t believe you weren’t going to tell me about this threat,’ Aidan said, and the words hissed through his teeth. ‘I had a right to know and so did your mum.’

It was an hour since Aidan had opened up the message and still the atmosphere in our house was taut with tension.

Aidan was angry as well as shocked and my mother was a bag of nerves. Her reaction was completely understandable because the same message had been sent to her mobile, which had been on silent mode in her handbag. She discovered it only after I asked her to check the phone.

To make matters worse I’d received calls from two colleagues informing me that their family members had also received the message.

‘I didn’t want to worry you,’ I said lamely. ‘And the gaffer ordered us not to tell anyone about it.’

‘But I’m not anyone, Laura,’ Aidan said. ‘I’m your partner and I have a right to know if my life is being threatened.’

‘But we can’t be sure it’s not just some vile prank,’ I said. ‘We therefore have to be careful not to create unnecessary alarm.’

‘So you and your colleagues decided that the best course of action was to keep quiet and ignore it.’

‘No, not at all. It’s being looked into to determine whether it’s a credible threat.’

‘And while you do that you think it’s all right to leave us in the dark. Is that it?’

I didn’t answer, just stood there in the middle of the kitchen, the breath trapped in my lungs.

‘Well, whoever is behind it obviously knew that you wouldn’t tell us,’ he went on. ‘And the fact that they have our private numbers suggests to me that this is not the work of some harmless prankster.’

I couldn’t disagree with him on that point so I didn’t try.