For the first time, Wayman looked worried. “But I didn’t know he was a copper, did I? Do you think I’d have done something like that if I’d known who he was? You must think I’m crazy.”

“But you did it, didn’t you?”

“Where’s this going?”

“Up to you, Des.”

“What do you mean?”

Michelle spread her hands. “I mean it’s up to you where it goes from here. It could go to the station, to the lawyers, to court eventually. Or it could end here.”

Wayman swallowed. “End? How? I mean…I don’t…”

“Do I have to spell it out?”

“You promise?”

“Only if you tell me what I want to know.”

“It goes no further?”

Michelle looked at DC Collins, who looked lost. “No,” she said. “This bloke you and your friend assaulted last night, what did Shaw tell you about him?”

“That he was a small-time villain from up north looking to get himself established on our patch.”

“And what did Detective Superintendent Shaw ask you to do?”

“Nip it in the bud.”

“Can you be more specific?”

“Shaw didn’t want to know. I mean, he’d just asked me to handle the situation, do something about it. He didn’t tell me how, and he didn’t want to know.”

“But it usually meant violence?”

“Most people understand a thump on the nose.”

“That’s your understanding of the situation?”

“If you like.”

“So that’s what you did?”

“Yes.”

“How did you find out he was in town?”

“I’ve been keeping an eye out. I recognized his car from when he was down here last week.”

“And how did you know where he was that evening?”

“I got a call on my mobile in the Pig and Whistle.”

“From who?”

“Who do you think?”

“Go on.”

“He said our mutual friend was drinking in a pub down the street, and if an opportunity presented itself…well, I was to have a quiet word, like.”

“But how did he…. Never mind.” Michelle realized that Shaw must have been using his whole network of informers to keep an eye on the comings and goings in the Graham Marshall investigation. But why? To hide the truth, that the great local hero Jet Harris was a murderer?

“So what did you do?”

“We waited outside and followed the two of you back to the riverside flats. We were a bit worried because we thought he might be going in to get his end away, like, no disrespect, and we might not get back to the Pig and Whistle till they’d stopped serving, so it was all sweetness and joy when he came straight down those stairs and into the street. We didn’t muck about.”

“And the beating was your idea?”

“Like I said, it gets the point across. Anyway, we wouldn’t have hurt him too much. We didn’t even get a chance to finish. Some interfering bastard walking his dog started making a lot of noise. Not that we couldn’t have dealt with him, too, but the bloody dog was waking the whole street up.”