‘That was to do with finding the junkie in the flat . . . and it was one bod.’

‘You want two round the clock for what could be weeks?’

‘I don’t think it will be weeks, but yes, I want to have that option.’

Kieron leaned back, going over it in silence.

It had been a surprise to them both, Serrailler thought, that they had managed to have a professional relationship quite separate from the family one, able to encompass serious disagreements, occasions when the Chief had to talk him down, argue against and finally overrule him, to refuse a request, without it affecting them outside the station. Simon had learned to get over the few frustrations, sometimes acknowledging later that the Chief had been right. But this time he was not about to swallow a judgement he was sure was wrong.

‘I understand about resources and I appreciate your position, but as so often, this is not only about money, this is a chance we may not get again, or not for a long time, during which they will have moved in closer, got their pincers tightened, and ruined the lives of more kids. Come on, Chief, you know that. Yes, they’re the minnows, near the bottom of the food chain, and generally those guys not only don’t squeal on their masters, they haven’t a clue who those masters are. But we can’t be certain of that. They might lead us two, three levels up, and from there . . .’

He stopped. Kieron knew what he was saying.

He went to the window and looked down on the back of the station, the secure entrance for the newly arrested who came stumbling out of police vans, the place for off-duty cars, the fuel pumps, the bicycle racks. Beyond, a fringe of trees and, behind them, the tower of St Michael’s Cathedral, to which the eyes of people going about their daily business were so often, unconsciously drawn, the focus of Lafferton, a beacon for miles around. Simon suddenly imagined a space where it had once been, and the vision shocked him.

‘Sorry, but it’s not enough. We’ll have patrols take a look when they’re in the Starly area and if you get any better info you can have your search but I’m not authorising one now.’

Forty-Eight

‘Sam, are you still in the attic?’

She could just make out a ‘yes’ from above.

‘Can you come down?’

‘Hang on,’ she heard, as if shouted through a layer of felt.

‘What?’

‘Can you leave that for a bit? The vet just rang – we can collect Wookie.’

‘Yaay! But why don’t we wait till we get the boy from school and take him?’ He had started calling Felix ‘the boy’ a year or so back, and because it had annoyed his young brother, Sam had gone on with it. Now, it no longer bothered Felix but it had stuck all the same.