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paper he produced from his pocket. "But she claims to have not seen him for weeks."
    Hellam nodded, "You believe her?"
    "Yes. She seems to detest him as much as we do and I don't think she's that good an actress," Kelser replied.
    Hellam looked at the two men sitting before him. Richards appeared to be working well with Kelser, who had been guiding him in their practices of work. Richards was a stocky man with a closely cropped hairstyle and his smooth, dark brown skin was always clean shaven. He had been recommended to Hellam just over three months earlier by Gabriel Henson, an associate to whom Hellam sold large quantities of drugs for his various dealing operations. He trusted Gabriel as much as you could ever trust people involved in that line of work, but he had told Kelser to keep an especially close eye on Richards for the first few months. There had never been any noticeable or significant slip-ups and, on the whole, everyone was pleased with the way Richards had been performing.
    Hellam had hired Richards since some of the work he had taken on had been getting heavier and he felt that Kelser could do with an accomplice to aid him in his duties. The duties in question were ambiguous at best and even if they had been given a comprehensive and detailed job description, they would have been hard pushed to come up with an appropriate title. The two men were used for intimidation and persuasion whenever it was required - which turned out to be far more often than expected. However, Hellam never used them when a more definitive solution was required to sort out a problem. Those special contracts were given to the freelancers. Hellam kept two on semi-retainers – hired killers who demanded huge quantities of money for their professional work. There had been a third freelancer he had used, a man whose name he could no longer recall, but who had been found murdered in his house a few years earlier - the result of the risks taken in his chosen line of work Hellam had reasoned after hearing of his death.
    Hellam glanced over to the other man sitting opposite him. Sebastian Kelser was in his mid-thirties, of medium height and build, and didn't appear on the surface to be particularly intimidating. But he bore an intense and unemotional demeanour. When he looked at you, he appeared to gaze through, past the eyes, as if he was only interested in what was going on inside a person ’ s head. This, coupled with the large scar which ran down the length of his left cheek, resulted in a man who induced uneasiness in anyone who spoke to him.
    Hellam had first met Kelser five years earlier, in an event which had proven fortuitous for both men. Hellam had been in his favourite bar, Jannson's, at the time, drinking with a woman he had met at a charity event the previous day.
    The evening had been going well until a man who was clearly inebriated began to bother them. The man, although drunk, still struck a formidable sight with huge muscles stretching his shirt to almost breaking point. Hellam had warned the man to leave them alone, but he had continued to bark profanity and even attempted to grope Hellam's companion. Hellam didn't have any of his usual protection around and felt reluctant to confront the hulk directly - he wasn't a man used to being in such a position.
    It was at that moment that someone had suddenly appeared behind the drunken monster and pulled him away from Hellam's table. Hellam noticed the indifference in Kelser's eyes as he had placed an arm around the huge man's neck and wrenched him backwards. Kelser hadn't spoken a word, appearing unconcerned as the muscle bound drunkard spat obscenities in his direction. Kelser twisted the man's huge arm awkwardly and pushed him to the floor, turning the arm against its natural direction. Hellam could remember wincing as he watched Kelser twist and push on the limb of the screaming man, certain it would break at any moment. Kelser eventually let him up while keeping a firm grip