‘Get your hands off her,’ Stephen shouted, becoming suddenly animated. ‘She’s my sister. This has got nothing to do with her. Leave her out of it.’

‘So, you admit there’s something to leave her out of, then?’ Looking smug, the senior officer gestured for Lou to be taken away. The female officer half guided, half pushed her into the living room. She released Lou’s arms and made her sit on the sofa. ‘Why don’t you do your brother a favour and tell us where he hides it?’ she said.

‘Hides what?’ Lou stared at the officer in absolute bafflement. ‘You’ve made a mistake. My brother’s not a criminal.’

The stairs creaked as officers went upstairs.

‘You’ve got no right to be here,’ Lou said, getting to her feet. ‘This is our home.’

‘Sit down and shut up. Unless you want me to arrest you for obstruction’Lou did as she was told. She knew this woman’s type – trying to prove that she had bigger balls than a man in a world of men. There was little point in arguing with her.

‘Boss!’ someone shouted in the hall. The female officer, losing interest in Lou, left to join her colleagues. Lou got up. She’d be damned if she was going to sit there while a swarm of men and women in stab vests invaded her home. But when she looked out into the hall, she wished she’d stayed put.

Stephen’s work tools littered the carpet, and an officer knelt on the floor, head and shoulders inside the cupboard under the stairs. He was pulling out heavy items wrapped in dustsheets. Another officer was in the process of removing the dustsheets to reveal manhole covers and grates that should have been sealing the drains across town.

The female officer spotted Lou lurking in the doorway. ‘Get back in there before I put you in there,’ she said.

Lou stood her ground. ‘I want to see my brother,’ she said. Stephen saw her and broke free of the officer who was restraining him in the kitchen.

‘I didn’t steal any of it, Lou. You have to believe me. I’m just looking after it. I’m not a thief. I didn’t know what any of it was. I only did it to pay for Mum’s funer –’

Two officers charged at Stephen. They grabbed him and he tried to squirm free. After a struggle, they managed to cuff his hands behind his back. The female officer grabbed Lou’s arm.

‘Get your fucking hands off my sister!’ Stephen yelled. Lou didn’t have time to tell the officer restraining Stephen to stop shoving him. Goading him would only heap coals on his temper. With his hands behind his back, Stephen had only one weapon with which to attack. He pulled his head back.

‘No, Stephen!’ Lou yelled. It was enough of a warning for the officer to dodge out of the way and avoid Stephen’s hard forehead bursting the soft cartilage of his nose. Officers swamped Stephen. They bundled him out of the house towards a waiting van.