‘Are we even sure that this is the bloke?’ said Archie, who was sitting in the passenger seat cleaning his nails with the tip of a switchblade.

‘That’s the whole point of us being here,’ Stephen replied. ‘As soon as he leaves, I’ll break in and have a snoop around his flat. If it looks like he’s our man, then I’ll call you guys to come up. And he’ll have a nice welcoming committee when he returns.’

‘What does he look like?’ asked Shane.

Stephen was about to answer when he noticed the door of the apartment block swing open and a man emerge.

‘He looks exactly like that,’ he said.

Shane and Archie looked up sharply.

The middle-aged man who’d just walked out of the building was of medium height, slim and well groomed, with the patrician demeanour of a silver fox. Clad in a beige linen suit and clutching a leather portfolio case, he moved with the casual self-assured stride of someone either wealthy or powerful enough never to need to hurry anywhere. He wasn’t accompanied by any minders and he didn’t look particularly bothered that anyone might be observing him, but then, thought Stephen, perhaps he was so confident in his anonymity that these things just weren’t a concern.

‘That’s him?’ asked Shane.

‘That’s him,’ confirmed Stephen.

‘Maybe he’s just nipping to the corner shop to get a pint of milk,’ Archie suggested.

Grecken walked up to a black Bentley, opened the door and got in. Moments later, the car pulled away from the kerb, growled off down the street and disappeared around the corner.

‘Or maybe not,’ said Archie.

‘Why don’t we follow him?’ said Shane.

‘No point,’ Stephen replied. ‘It’ll be much quicker and easier to work out who he is from what’s inside his flat. Trust me, I’ve done this kind of thing many times before.’

Leaning forward, he opened the glove compartment and took out his set of breaking-and-entering tools. He pushed open the car door then paused a moment and turned back to them.

‘And if you see him return while I’m still in there, then give me the heads-up pronto.’

‘Yeah sure,’ yawned Shane. ‘Just get on with it.’

57

At around the same time, just over six miles away, Bailey was standing outside the large iron gates of Abney Park Cemetery, peering through the railings into the misty undergrowth beyond.

Once again she was starting to have second thoughts, consumed as she was by a cloying sense of dread at the impending encounter with Mister Snigiss. She suddenly regretted not allowing Dale to be here watching her back. Too late for that now though.

She suppressed her fear and looked up at the sky. At least the sun was starting to rise. She didn’t fancy trekking around inside that cemetery in the pitch-black with only a torch to guide her.

She blew on her hands, tucked her baseball cap lower and huddled deeper into the collar of her Hugo Boss jacket. It was a chilly morning and a damp fog shrouded the streets of North London. There was a bit of early morning traffic along Stamford Hill just behind her, but other than that, things were still pretty quiet.