London Large: Blood on the Streets Read Online Free Page A

the world that H - and a good proportion
of the villains it was his lot to badger - had come out of. Or so it was always
said. Truth was, his old stomping ground was changing, and changing fast. Like
everywhere else. A lot of the old faces had melted away. Confident John,
though, had stayed put, supporting the few pubs that were left, running his
book and keeping his ear close to the ground. He wasn’t exactly a grass, but he
and H went back a long, long way, and if anyone knew what the Albanian firm
which had taken up residence in the area were up to it would be him.
    This thing between them and
the Russians had driven H closer to the edge than he’d ever been. For years it
had been a fairly predictable struggle for control of Soho - drugs, people and
sex trafficking, the usual things. But these last couple of weeks the dogs of
war had well and truly been let slip, and the bodies had been piling up like
they hadn’t since…nobody knew when.
    These fucking psychopaths
and their endless fucking vendettas
.
    Close to two dozen murders in
less than a month, and a queasy panic beginning to grip the city.
    H had drawn the short straw
on this one and found himself in charge of the investigation. A proper shit
sandwich, with all the trimmings. But now he was determined to do a last bit of
proper coppering before they put him out to pasture. Get these bastards sorted
out…
    ‘Guv’, said Amisha, ‘you’d
better hold onto your hat. Something big’s kicking off…Christ on a bike…the
Internet’s just exploded!’
    ‘What, what is it?’
    ‘Some sort of bloodbath…in
St. James’ Park.’
    ‘St. James’ Park? For fuck’s
sake! Quick, turn the radio on.’
    How quaint
,
he’s still living in the old world
.
    ‘They won’t have it yet. It’s
only just happened. Social media’s driving this one. Some tourists have
stumbled across a bloodbath. It’s a Twitterstorm, #slaughterinthequeenspark.
Jesus - look at this! There’s bodies everywhere. Guv…you’ve got to see this.’
    H’s head was spinning and he
found himself short of breath. This was all he needed. The beeping and pinging
of Amisha’s gadgets was driving him nuts. A bloodbath? Bodies everywhere? In
the Queen’s own park? Just after breakfast time? Fuck!…we’re losing it. Is
nothing sacred anymore?
    He’d have to hit the ground
running on this one, or someone would be having his guts for garters.
    Ping! His own phone piped up.
He swung the wheel and headed towards Westminster Bridge before he answered it.
Confident John would have to wait.

7
    H cranked up the siren
and put his foot down before taking the call from his guvnor, Chief Inspector
Hilary Stone. A smooth operator if ever there was one. It wasn’t that long ago
that he’d been her boss; before, inevitably, she was promoted above him. It was
the first time in his not-so-glittering career that he’d had a female boss. He
was still coming to terms with it.
    He had a grudging respect for
her ability to work a room of superiors and high flyers like a newly elected politician
on overdrive. Always neatly dressed, an ability to make other people think they
were important and an easy eloquence allowed her to climb the greasy pole in a
way H never could, not that he could ever have been bothered.
    When they’d first met H had
made a play for her during a drunken night out, after cracking a major murder
case. Never one to grasp the intricacies of female sexual messaging, he had
been sternly rebuffed. Sometime later, over a liquid lunch, Hilary confided
that she also preferred the ladies, or, as H put it, ‘batted for the other
side.’ With sexual tension off the agenda their professional relationship kind
of worked OK.
    ‘H, what in God’s name is
going on in the West End? My PA has just shown me a murder scene exploding all
over the internet. In St. James’s Park. It’s not even been called in yet.’
    Hilary had always been good
under pressure, thought H. Until now.
    He often had cause to