by Geoff Wolak
* * *
Dame Helen grew puzzled at what she was reading. It was not her area of interest, domestic policing and firearms, but she was puzzled. So far some three thousand firearms had been dumped at various police stations throughout the length and breadth of the kingdom, officers now standing vigil to see if they were next. And the street price of illegal weapons was soaring, putting them out of the reach of young hoodlums, she considered.
Six gun-dealers had been found dead, along with large stashes of weapons, and Scotland Yard’s success rate in finding weapons had suddenly trebled with a ready supply of very accurate tip-offs. Rumour had it that one of the gun dealers had been found tied to a chair with a sign around his neck which said, ‘Gun dealer, please arrest me, cell with a view!’
Worryingly, the number of kneecappings had risen dramatically in the capital, but at the moment it seemed gang related.