Denzil spoke gently, as if, Simon thought, that he was looking after him. He felt warmed by it.

It was nearly four before he got away and he had to change the time of the meeting with the estate agent twice. He rarely left the station before six, but this was something he was anxious not to miss, something that had given him a thump of excitement when he had seen it.

The last hour with CID had been grim. These coppers were as tough as any but some things did not wash over you without leaving their mark, and as Serrailler looked round the room, he saw the different expressions on their faces – shock, revulsion. Anger.

‘What are these people like? What kind of scum shoots a mum and dad and their two children point-blank, for Christ’s sake?’

‘Same scum who set fire to the shop.’

‘Big difference.’

‘They must have thought Wang was in there.’

‘All of that,’ Simon had said. ‘I agree with every last word, and we’re liaising with the West Midlands force, the motorway guys, Greater Manchester, everyone’s together on this. They have to be found.’

A frisson round the table. They all knew the odds of getting the men at the top. Other, larger forces with far more drug-related crimes on their streets, had been working on it for years.

‘Lucky strike,’ DI Morgan said.

‘Yes. Chance plays a part, always has, but dogged police work, routine searches, eyes and ears open, patrols on the motorways are usually what pay off in the end.’

‘Come on, we all know it’s the tiddlers who get caught that way – doing a ton, no brake lights, forgot to pay their tax, pull them over and guess what? The top men drive their Audis and their Range Rovers as if they had granny inside, they never forget their insurance, they have the cars serviced every month, keep them clean as a whistle. You won’t find any little wraps and polybags of coke in their glove compartments. Never come under suspicion.’

‘All right, but let’s not assume every force is as idle and incompetent as this one.’

A good-humoured roar of protest.

‘The scene of the shooting is cordoned off and they’re crawling all over it, the exit road from the service station has been closed – they’ve done a temporary rerouting. They’re throwing everything at it, including ballistics of course, which is something they’re particularly good at. Don’t assume your best policing never yields a result.’

‘So what about us, guv?’

‘Wang’s pharmacy and the flat above – we won’t get anything more, the building’s pretty much obliterated, but fire service investigators are still there. Our main focus is the Wang house. I also need people delving into every aspect of his business – and his life. Every last detail. Bilaval?’

‘Great, right up my street at the moment.’