The next morning, James and Harry were sitting in SI10, listening to DS Thompson.

"I checked back with the airport. Derek Coltrane was on a plane ten days ago, only he was registered as Derek Banning and as he had no criminal record, his presence passed unnoticed." Thompson informed them. "I compared his picture with the delivery boy's description and that's him. I don't know exactly when or how he met the Thorn brothers but it doesn't really matter. Everything fits."

Superintendant Chas Jarvis came out of his office and joined them around the table. He had some papers in his hands and a confident expression. "New York just called back. They have no evidence that a Derek Banning or Coltrane was behind any crime, but when they arrested a bunch of corrupted people some weeks ago and found that file with both your pictures, they caught only little fishes. They thought they didn't have a name for the leader because the word on the street was that those guys were working for Coltrane; so they thought it was a code name, referring to the former crooked cop. Now of course, they're inclined to believe that Banning was behind it."

Dempsey nodded wearily. It was somewhat strange and rather hard to put up with the fact that he was once again threatened by a Coltrane. Of course it wasn't the same person, but the name was still the same and this simple name conveyed so much. Too much. He took a deep breath.

"Ok. So, we know he arrived Wednesday in London, and I figure he stayed at Frank Carter's because of the Thorn brothers. The brothers were already in London since Monday and had their information from Lucky Willy. Jess and Maggie must have dyed their hair after so that when..." he took a second to say the name, he couldn't help it; he cleared his throat. "...when Coltrane arrived, they kidnapped the wrong girl. Coltrane realised their mistake and that must have been the fight the delivery boy overheard, but... they stuck to their plan. They killed Maggie and... Then it was Willy's turn."

"And now what?" Harry wondered aloud.

Chas frowned, running a hand on the back of his neck. "Now Coltrane must be looking for your children, or for you. He knows he failed the first part of his plan, and he won't be able to get you by surprise because he already sent his little letter."

"He has to be furious." Thompson said. "It was a well-thought plan if he had taken the right girl. Maybe his rage will get him less careful."

"No, he's careful." Dempsey argued. "He wore gloves, he used his mother's name to pass the frontier, he left nothing behind, nothing unforeseen. He didn't do any mistake, the others did."

"I agree." Harry nodded. "If he really wants to take his revenge on James because he got his father imprisoned then he must have been thinking about it for a while, polishing up every detail."

"Why not before then? And why fail?" Thompson wondered. After all, Coltrane died like ten years ago, you'd think his son had time to prepare a perfect plan.

"You said there had been a big raid of Coltrane's supporters just before you went in New York" Chas checked and James made a curt nod. "Maybe it took time for him to make his decision, he may not even have known Dempsey's name at the beginning. Maybe his mother's death was a kind of trigger. He wanted to get his revenge and started building up a team to help him to take his revenge but his initial plans were crushed by Davis' raid."

"He ended up with only the Thorn brothers as accomplices, one of them not even being used to such activities." Harry continued.

"But at least he had a place to go once in England thanks to their cousin." Thompson joined in.

"We have to find the cousin, this is the key." Dempsey ruffled his hair in exasperation. "What about this restaurant thing? You found where Frankie's working yet?"

"We're on it." Chas assured him. "The address we found thanks to his driving licence was wrong, a team went there but the woman in the flat said that Carter moved several months ago. We have no idea about his current location except for that restaurant hint. I've got men looking for him in the presumed neighbourhood."

"Right." Dempsey answered and he picked up some of the files.