Hidden in Plain Sight (Detective William Warwick, #2)

by Jeffrey Archer

Julian, “the less scrupulous of your colleagues might well be tempted to take a cut.” “Not if Commander Hawksby has his way. He considers a bent copper worse than any criminal.” “I agree with him,” said Sir Julian. “So what does he plan to do about the drugs problem?” asked Grace. “The commissioner has given him the authority to set up an elite unit, whose sole purpose will be to track down one particular drug baron and take him out, while the area drugs squads concentrate on the supply chain, leaving the local police to handle the dealers on the streets, and the users, who are committing other crimes like burglary and theft to fund their addiction.”

“I’ve defended one or two of them recently,” said Grace. “Desperate, pathetic creatures, with little purpose in life other than getting their next fix. How long will it be before those in authority realize it’s often a medical problem, and not all addicts should be treated as criminals?”

They set up so-called pawn shops for customers who never intend to claim the goods back.” “But surely you can shut them down?” said Beth. “We do. But they’re like cockroaches. Stamp on one of them and half a dozen more come scuttling out of the woodwork. Drugs are now an international industry like oil, banking, or steel. If some of the biggest cartels had to declare their annual profits, not only would they be among the top hundred companies on the stock exchange, but the Exchequer would be able to collect billions more in taxes.”

“Perhaps the time has come to consider regulated legalization of some drugs,” said Grace. “Over my dead body,” said Sir Julian. “I fear there will be a lot more dead bodies, if we don’t,” said William.

“The Duc de Vendôme, a seventeenth-century French aristocrat, used to receive his courtiers even when he was sitting on the loo, and after he’d wiped his bottom, one of them rushed forward and kissed it, saying, ‘Oh noble one, you have the arse of an angel.’”

model citizen. She does the ladies who lunch circuit, attends the occasional concert at Cadogan Hall, likes Debussy and Strauss, sits on the local committee of Médecins Sans

“Or he’s discovered the location of Rashidi’s slaughter,” suggested Paul. “Slaughter?” said William. “Where they cook up the drugs, and prepare the cling film wraps, before selling them on,”

explained Paul. “Also known as the boiler room or hothouse.” “If it turns out

“Fathers are always convinced that nobody’s good enough for their daughter, especially an only daughter, but I couldn’t be more delighted to have William as a son-in-law. Of course he’s not good enough for you, but he’ll do!”

“Fellow officers, we are about to take part in one of the biggest operations in the Met’s history. Every one of you was handpicked because you are recognized as the acknowledged leaders in your particular field. Drugs are the scourge of our society, and have caused the biggest rise in crime for decades. They indiscriminately kill the young and the vulnerable, while a small group of ruthless individuals line their pockets, untroubled by the human suffering they’re causing, and arrogantly convinced they’re above the law.

“If our operation goes to plan, we will also arrest his four closest acolytes, preventing the hydra from simply replacing its lost head. And

postnuptial,

but by a throng of housewives heading for the shops.

Not sure this exists anymore