Hawkins met her stare for a moment before turning back to Kask. ‘Look, I’m going to give you a few minutes to talk this over with your brief, but this is your last chance, OK? Interview suspended at nine seventeen.’ She nodded at Frank, who stopped the tape as she pulled the door open and stepped out into the hall.

She paced a few yards up the corridor before turning full circle, stopping to run a hand through her hair as Frank exited the interview room behind her.

He followed her up the hall in his familiar lopsided gait. ‘You all right?’

‘Yeah,’ she said. ‘But we’re treading on some heavily invested toes here. I can’t string this out much longer.’

Frank sucked his teeth, as if trying to dislodge a stray piece of breakfast. ‘I don’t think you’re far off, ma’am. Keep at him.’ He winked. ‘If you’ve the bollocks, like.’

Hawkins nodded, familiar enough with Frank’s abrasive approach not to be offended by what was supposed to be encouragement.

And he was right; they needed to get back in the room before Kask’s brief talked him out of saying anything more. Her strategy had been to let him stew for a moment, to allow him to realize that if he wouldn’t give her what she was asking for, her attempts to glean information from less well-informed others might inadvertently worsen his situation.

Except, just because Kask himself wasn’t willingly involved, it didn’t mean his employees weren’t. Someone had tipped off the dealers about her presence at Streatham Motors, and there was a strong possibility that person was a member of Kask’s team. If they didn’t manage to harvest the information soon, Vladimir and his boys would have to be released, either to inform the dealers of exactly what was going on, or to share Kowalski’s fate, or both.

They needed names fast.

But she wasn’t convinced Kask would crack.

For a second she considered going straight to the chief superintendent, asking for a judgement call on whether her homicide case took precedence over Mike’s drug investigation. If Vaughn agreed, she could force the information she wanted out of Maguire’s team. But that approach was massively risky, especially as there was no guarantee the drug gang was responsible for the murders.

She had to stay with Kask.

Hawkins took a deep breath, and was about to lead Frank back to the interview room when her phone rang.

She retrieved it, seeing a withheld number as she answered. ‘Hawkins.’

‘Hello, Chief Inspector.’ Pritchard.

‘Gerry. Do we have progress?’

‘Of course. You know I’m yet to fail when it comes to ascertaining cause of death.’

‘And?’

‘Well, suffice to say I now know what killed your three victims,’ he paused, ‘and I promise, Detective, it won’t be what you expected.’

16