‘Don’t take your coat off. I’ve got a guy downstairs and in ten I have to let him go because he’s slippery as soap but I want him tailed until he leads you to his place, wherever and whatever that is, flat, house, tent in the woods, I’ve no idea, but possibly he’ll be anticipating a tail so I’m sending Richie out first, making himself easy to spot. You follow on and he won’t notice, his attention will be taken up with Rich. Have a bag with you, something better than a plastic carrier, you’re on your way into town, do some shopping. Richie will peel off at some point where there are plenty of people about, you carry on. Anything he does, anywhere he goes, anyone he meets, you clock it. If he heads back to the Black Cat in Spenser Street you do the same. I’d advise the tea not the coffee.’

‘Smart shoppers are all the rage in there,’ Donna said. Serrailler gave her a look.

‘If he gets suspicious, back off, but if he leads you to anywhere that looks like his home, get a good look, then go. He’s pissed off and he thinks he’s looking for a fight but he isn’t a fighter. Right, ten minutes, time for me to have a last word and escort him off police premises. Richie, you’re hanging about at the front desk, Denzil, on the stairs. Let’s go.’

They lost the ginger-haired man just before the square, when he turned suddenly left down one of Lafferton’s narrow side streets, and sight of him was immediately blocked by a delivery lorry. Richie dodged across between parked cars and round it, but Ginger was nowhere in sight. That street led to another, beyond which was the site where the new city council building and magistrates’ court were going up, behind hoarding and an entrance guarded by a security Portakabin and a barrier.

There was little point in asking if the guard had seen a skinny, ginger bloke but the DC did so anyway.

JCBs, excavators and aggregate lorries were backing and advancing, tipping and reversing so that he could barely make himself heard, but the answer was as expected and the site was impossible for anyone to sneak into without being spotted.

Richie turned and saw Denzil waiting at the top of the lane.

‘Bad luck.’

Richie shrugged. ‘Not sure the Super will see it that way.’

‘Do we even know who he is and what he’s supposed to have done?’

‘Nope and ours not to reason why. We just obey orders.’

‘Not sure I like that way of thinking.’

‘Oh come on, let’s get an overpriced coffee in the brasserie. Who’s to know?’