Chapter change! Chapter 16, Bernard Creasey resurrected!

After the deaths of Boran Vukovic, Ivana Kaiec and the anonymous henchman who burgled Ivana's house in Barlovcar I had the feeling that the body-count in this novel was rising too quickly. I mean, I'm not Swedish, do I really need to kill off everybody?

My thinking was heavily influenced by the English playwright, David Hare. In an interview he gave to The Guardian recently he points out that the security services don't actually need to kill people very often. It's much easier simply to destroy their enemies reputation so nobody wants to have anything to do with them any more. You can read the complete interview with David Hare here:

So, I've brought Bernard Creasey back to life, though his new fate isn't really very much fun. In the original ending of 'Chapter 16 - Finding an ally' Bernard was run over by a white van. This is the new version:

As Celia’s plane took off from Heathrow airport later that evening, Bernard was getting ready to go home. It had been a strange day, Ned’s sister turning up like that. He hoped he’d done the right thing sending her off to Jeremy Fisk. They’d never worked together but Jeremy had a good reputation and he certainly had the contacts that Celia was going to need if her story was true.

He heard the doorbell ring and then the sound of voices outside in reception. Maureen seemed to be arguing with someone. Probably Davina, she was trouble that one, but good at her job, you couldn’t argue about that. He was just getting up to go and see what the trouble was when the door flew open and two policemen walked in.

‘Oi!’ said Bernard, outraged. ‘What the fuck’s going on?’

‘Bernard Creasey? My name’s Detective Sergeant King.You’re under arrest. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention now something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’

‘Arrest? What for?’

‘Collection, creation and distribution of obscene images involving the sexual abuse of minors,’ the officer paused and grinned at Bernard’s confusion. ‘Kiddie porn, you stupid cunt,’ he added, then leant forward and put his mouth up close to Bernard’s ear. ‘... and I’ll be really, really surprised if we don’t find examples on your computer systems after our experts have checked through them all!’