The Last Temptation. Val McDermid

into custody. So calling it Danni’s gun makes a second hole in your story.’ Petra picked up the cigarette packet and put it back in her pocket.

      ‘Right now,’ she continued, ‘I’ve got a team out in Mitte talking to everybody who knows you and who knew Danni. I’d put money on us not finding a single person who can put you and him together. Well, maybe we’ll get one or two. But I’d put money on the fact that they’ll be tied in as closely to Darko Krasic as you are.’

      At the sound of Krasic’s name, Krebs reacted. Her thumb flicked the end of the cigarette so hard she broke the filter tip clean off. For one brief moment, something sparked in her eyes. Inside, Petra rejoiced. The first crack had appeared. Now for the crowbar.

      ‘Give him up, Marlene. He’s thrown you to the wolves. You talk to me, you can save yourself. You can watch your kid grow up.’

      Something shifted behind Krebs’ gaze and Petra realized she’d lost her. The mention of her daughter, that’s what had done it. Of course, she thought. Krasic has the kid under wraps. That’s his insurance policy. Before she could break Krebs, they’d have to find the daughter. Still, it was worth one last throw of the dice. ‘You’ll be going in front of the judge soon,’ she said. ‘You’ll be remanded in custody. No matter how smart-mouthed your lawyer is, no matter how many times he plays the card that you’re no risk to the public, they’re not going to bail you. Because I’m going to tell the prosecutor we’ve got you on our books as someone with links to organized crime. You’re going into the general prison population. Do you have any idea how easy it will be for me to make it look like you’re co-operating with us? And do you have any idea how little time it will take Darko Krasic to make sure you never talk to anyone else again? I mean, think about it, Marlene. How long did it take him to set up Kamal?’ Petra got to her feet. ‘Think about it.’ She crossed to the door and knocked to indicate that the meeting was over.

      As the WaPo outside opened up, Petra looked back over her shoulder. Marlene Krebs was leaning forward, her loose hair shrouding her face. ‘I’ll be calling on you, Marlene.’

      Krebs looked up. Hate blared across the room at Petra. ‘Fuck you,’ she said.

      I’ll take that as a yes, Petra thought triumphantly as she walked back to the Wachte for her gun. She had finally lit a low flame under Darko Krasic that might eventually cook Tadeusz Radecki.

      Carol had always enjoyed the ambience of Soho. She’d seen it shift from the seediness of the porn industry’s hub to the stylish, gay-orientated café society it had become in the 1990s, but there had never been a time when she hadn’t found it fascinating. Chinatown rubbed shoulders with theatreland, leather men shared the pavements with shifty-eyed prostitute’s punters, media gurus battled wannabe gangstas for taxis. Although she’d never policed its narrow, traffic-choked streets, she’d spent a lot of time there, much of it in a drinking club on Beak Street where one of her oldest friends, now a literary journalist, was a founding member.

      Today, everything was different. She was looking at the world through a different lens. From the perspective of a drugs courier, nothing was quite the same. Every face on the street was a potential cause for concern. Every dodgy doorway could pose some unnamed threat. To walk down Old Compton Street was to tiptoe into the danger zone, antennae bristling and every sense quivering with alertness. She wondered how criminals coped with these levels of adrenaline. Just one morning and she was jittery at some deep level, her stomach clenched and her skin clammy. Simply trying to keep her pace down to a stroll took every ounce of effort she had to give.

      She turned into Dean Street, her eyes scanning the pavements and the roadway, constantly checking to see if anyone was taking an interest in her. Something tricky was bound to be lying in wait for her, and she wanted a sense of what that might be.

      Carol spotted Damocles up ahead of her on the opposite side of the street. It looked like a typical Soho café-bar, all designer chairs and marble tables, exotic flower arrangements visible through the smoked-glass window. She kept on walking till she reached the next corner, then circled the block so that she came back down Dean Street in the opposite direction.

      She was almost level with them when she saw them. She’d never worked Drugs, but she was familiar with the plain clothes cars they used. This one looked like a bog-standard Ford Mondeo, but what gave it away were the twin tail pipes of the exhaust. This had a lot more under the bonnet than the standard engine. The stubby radio aerial sticking out of the rear window was confirmation enough if she’d needed it. The driver sat behind the wheel, ostensibly reading the paper, a baseball cap pulled down to shield the top half of his face.

      Where there was one, there would be more. Now she had a better idea of what she was looking for, Carol carried on ambling down the street. There was another car she was fairly sure was Drugs Squad, again with the driver in place behind his newspaper. Directly opposite Damocles, two men were making a very thorough job of cleaning the window of a newsagent’s. A third man was bending over a bike, pumping up the rear tyre very slowly, checking the pressure with his fingers every few seconds.

      Two car loads, she thought. That meant six or eight officers. She’d clocked five, which meant there were probably another three she hadn’t spotted. If she was their target, the chances were that the others were already inside the café. Fine. So be it.

      Time for a little improvisation.

      What Carol hadn’t registered was the battered white van parked behind the Mondeo. Inside, it was fitted out with state-of-the-art surveillance kit. Morgan, Thorson and Surtees perched on swivel chairs, headsets clamped to their ears. ‘That’s her, isn’t it?’ Thorson said. ‘She’s changed the way she looks, but it’s her.’

      ‘You can always tell by the walk,’ Surtees said, reaching across her to snag a Thermos he’d had filled with café latte from his favourite Old Compton Street bar. ‘The one thing it’s almost impossible to disguise.’

      Morgan stared intently into one of the video monitors. ‘She’s carrying on to the corner. That’s two passes. She’ll go in next time.’

      ‘She handled those two thugs well,’ Surtees said, pouring out his coffee and pointedly not offering any to his colleagues. Morgan, he knew, would have his inevitable bottle of San Pellegrino stashed somewhere. Thorson he’d never liked enough to want to share anything with.

      Thorson glared at him as the rich aroma of the coffee hit. She never seemed to manage to be as prepared for things as that anally retentive bastard Surtees. He always made her feel inadequate. She suspected that Morgan knew that, and that it was one of the reasons he kept them working together. He always liked to keep people on their toes. It meant he got results, but she couldn’t help feeling that it was sometimes at the expense of the nervous systems of his team members. She craned her neck to look at the monitor over Morgan’s shoulder. ‘All units in place, target entering,’ she heard through the crackle in her headset. ‘On my word, not before.’

      Carol had come back into sight, this time moving with a determined stride towards the heavy glass and chrome doors of Damocles. Morgan clicked the mouse linked to the video display and the picture changed to the inside of the café. Another click and the screen split into two images. One showed the whole of the interior, the other focused on the man sitting reading and smoking at a table in the rear. They watched as Carol walked in and made straight for the bar. She chose a stool towards the back of the room, a little distance from the man she’d been told was her contact. But she made no attempt to catch his attention. She said something to the barista, who supplied her with a mineral water.

      ‘A pity we couldn’t get audio in place,’ Surtees said.

      ‘There’s far too much background noise,’ Thorson said. ‘We tried a mike under the table, but the marble blocked out anything worth hearing.’

      Carol reached into her bag and pulled out a packet of cigarettes. She took one out and put it between her lips.

      ‘I didn’t think she smoked,’ Thorson said.

      ‘She doesn’t.’ Morgan frowned at the screen. ‘What