Five minor convictions, which had cost him a few quid in fines, were all the police actually had to show for the hundreds of man hours they had devoted to trying to nail his arse to the wall. He did not make mistakes and left no traces or loose tongues. If he found himself the centre of attention, he would slip away to sunnier climes until obscurity was again ready to embrace him. He was well aware that the attention of officers of law was never far away. Occupational hazard. You kept the fox at bay, you didn’t invite it into the henhouse. Money was certainly not a problem. He had deposits in various discreet banks and had amassed a wide share portfolio, in an equally wide variety of names. He was a skilled financial manipulator and was quite at home in the equity, currency and commodity markets. Indeed, he read the Financial Times more often than he read the sports pages. Had he not been a criminal, he would have been a ruthlessly successful business man.

Every job he had ever done was done for money. Emotion played no part in it. No doubts. No regrets. Certainly, no sense of guilt. Do it, calmly, efficiently, then walk away. Simple principles which had served him well. Now he was ripping them into tiny pieces and scattering them to the wind.

Foolish!

Dangerous!

But that little bastard had tried to shaft him. After all he had done. And all he knew. That was not acceptable and that could not be allowed to pass. He might wish to return one day and he would need his reputation intact. This was not business. This was personal.

Foolish!

Dangerous!

Necessary!

The professional informant is precisely that – a professional. He trades off information in return for a reward from the police tout fund. Most officers, especially those of senior rank, will run their own network of touts whose identities are jealously guarded. A single informer may work for several officers without any of them being aware of this fact. McAllister was no exception.

His best tout, whom he only ever referred to as Shugs, was himself a well-known Glasgow criminal figure with a long record. Several officers were working very hard to connect him with a series of armed post-office robberies. When he was a young cop, McAllister had arrested the equally young Shugs for car theft (actually for several car thefts). Shugs had been desperate to get bail and had offered information if McAllister arranged this. He spoke to the Procurator Fiscal who indicated that Shugs would get bail anyway. Claiming the credit, McAllister conveyed the good news to Shugs who, in his gratitude, provided a barrel load of nuggets about his friends and enemies alike. Shugs had been turned. McAllister climbed several rungs up the career ladder.