Fallen Angel by Kevin Lewis Page B

it.’
    Stacey knew all too well never to speak to Jack about particular deals or people for fear of being drawn too closely into his organization. Their arrangement worked only if she kept her distance from him.
    ‘Are you fucking serious?’ The tone in her voice was hard. ‘You bring me here to tell me you’ve got a fucking grass – do you know what would happen to me if anyone found out that I was with you? Tough fucking luck. What do you expect me to do about it?’
    Jack stared at her, his growing anger obvious. ‘You need to tell me who it is.’

12
    ‘This really isn’t the best time, Khan, I’m kinda busy.’
    Jack’s words were bouncing around Collins’s mind as she drove home as fast as she could in the vain hope that she could get back and see Sophie before she went to bed. Khan sounded slightly hurt.
    ‘But I’m only calling because you told me to.’
    ‘What are you talking about?’
    ‘You know, that thing we talked about, the thing you wanted me to do with, erm, the thing. Well, I did it. I did the thing, loaded it up and now … well, the other thing …’
    ‘Khan, are you at home?’
    ‘Yeah, why?’
    ‘I’m in my car. I don’t think anyone’s listening in on this call. You can feel free to make use of a few more words, give me a bit more of a chance to understand what you’re trying to say.’
    Khan sighed with relief. ‘I put the worm on the kidnapper’s account and set up a remote link to my pocket PC. The alarm’s just gone off, so I logged in and got the ISP. I thought it was going to be another Internet café, but it’s not. It’s a house, a house in Dulwich.’
    ‘Jesus, Khan, are you telling me you know where this guy is?’
    ‘I know where he is right now, yeah.’
    Collins couldn’t believe what she was hearing. ‘Then why the fuck didn’t you tell anyone?’ she asked urgently.
    ‘He’s only just logged on and I’m telling
you
. Right now!’
    Shortly after the call a team from homicide were screaming through the streets of South London. Collins and Woods were in a car with Khan, who was there to secure any evidence they found on the computer. Two armed-response vehicles had been diverted from their usual patrols around the capital and were also on their way.
    Woods was at the wheel, expertly weaving his way through the evening traffic. Khan was in the back, half excited and half terrified about the events that were unfolding around him. Collins tried her best to concentrate on the task at hand, but her thoughts drifted back to her meeting with Jack Stanley. His words kept turning over in her mind. ‘There’s a grass in my organization. You need to tell me who it is.’ It was an impossible request. Although Jack hadn’t said as much, it was obvious what would happen to the grass as soon as he had been identified: he’d be killed, which would make Collins an accessory to murder.
    Collins snapped her thoughts back to the present as Woods quietly pulled up several houses away from their target – the place where, according to Khan, the kidnapper had logged on to the Hotmail account that was used to send the ransom demands. He switched off the engine, killed the lights and waited for the others to arrive.
    The house itself was a run-of-the-mill semi-detached Victorian property; an iron railing marked the boundarybetween the pavement and the small front garden. The lights on the ground floor were
off,
but there were signs of life upstairs.
    Collins turned to Khan. ‘Listen carefully. The armed-response unit are going to gain entry to the house. Once they’ve secured it, DS Woods and I will go inside along with the senior officers. What I want you to do is wait right here. Don’t even think about coming in until I call you. Is that clear?’
    Khan nodded. ‘Crystal,’ he said meekly.
    Out of the corner of her eye Collins noticed something moving at the other end of the street. She turned her head and saw, bathed in the orange glow of the street lights, a