To Kill a Grey Man by D C Stansfield Page A

got up, walked into the kitchen and said, “When you see Jonathan,
tell him we need to speak to him about his father.   Tell him no police, okay?   And we will be back.”

 
    Olivia nodded between sobs and he went down the stairs.   As soon as the men had left the shop, Olivia’s
tears dried up.   She had been around men
like this all her life and knew how to turn on the waterworks.   She went to the window and saw the large
Mercedes drive away.   She walked into the
small bedroom and let Jonathan out of the alcove.
    “What is going on?” she shouted.   “What the bloody hell have you got me into?”
    “I’m sorry, sorry,” he said shaking.   “I have no idea.   Dad called and
told me to hide.   Thank you so much for
helping.”
    He phoned his dad.   “They’ve
gone.”
    “Thank God,” said Collins and Jonathan could hear the relief in his
voice.   
    “Look we have to go away for a few days.   Tell Olivia to run the shop and to tell anyone
who asks that we are on holiday.   Okay?   I am going to grab some
clothes for you from home.   I want you to
pack everything in that alcove into bags and have them waiting by the back door.   I will be with you in twenty minutes.”
    “What is going on?” said Jonathan.
    “I am not sure,” said Collins.   “But we will piece it together and then whoever has come after us will
rue this day.”

 
    He hung up and re-dialed.   Surge
answered the phone.
    “How many?” said Surge.
    “Two dead,” replied Collins.
      “Ah, I have three,” said
Surge.
    “Are you okay?” asked Collins.
    “Sure,” said Surge.   “No
problem.”
    “Okay, where are they?” said Collins.
    Surge gave the details of the alley.
      “Right leave it with me.   I will pick you up in one hour,” said Collins.
    “Give me an hour and twenty.   I
have a bit of private business to attend to.”
    “Sure,” said Collins and rung off.  

 
    Immediately his phone rang.   It
was The Grey Man.
    “How many?” Collins
asked.  
    “At least five dead judging by the shooting,” said The Grey Man.
    “Okay.   Well, that makes ten
altogether.   It was two for me and three
for Surge. Jonathan they missed.   Thank
God.   What
is going on?” said Collins.
    “Look, I think I might know,” said The Grey Man.   “They are after me and they know you would
hunt them down so decided to take us all out at once.   I think The Firm are involved.”
    “But why now?” said Collins.
    “Because I woke up blind this morning,” said The Grey Man.

 
    Collins went quiet for a moment as he took that in thinking what
that would mean to someone like The Grey Man.
    “Are you okay?   “Where are you?   I think we all need to go on the run and try
to work this out.”
    “I am hidden, I hope, in a thicket in a woods around 1000 yards to
the north east of my house.   You cannot
miss the house.   It must be a pile of
rubble with police and firemen crawling all over it,” said The Grey Man and he
gave the address.
    “Right.   I’m going to pick up Surge and my son and be
with you in around two hours.   Keep still.   As we get close I will call you.”

 
    Collins then phoned up The Firm and gave the address of his house
and the alley, with instructions that there were five to clean up.   He gave his special code.   If anyone bad had infiltrated The Firm this
would send them a nice message they had screwed up big time.

 
    Collins dragged both bodies to the side of the house.   He went upstairs and pulled out a couple of
large, leather bags and some fresh white towels from under the bed in the spare
room.   In one he packed his working
clothes, mainly black shirts and trousers and some clothes for Jonathan.   He then went to his bedroom and took down the
concealed entrance to his workshop.   This
was a small area with rows and rows of weapons placed on special wall hangers
or in racks plus a small work bench.   He
knew what guns Jonathan would bring from the