‘I’ve an idea,’ Pet said, looking at Tom. ‘I’m looking into her phone. It’s a pre-pay, no contract, but it’s linked to a Facebook account and has a Cloud password. If I can bypass those, we may be able to view her last phone backup which would include all messages, emails, photographs and videos. If they are blackmailing the corrupt cop, then she may have the compromising pictures or videos. It has to be worth a look.’

‘It would certainly be safer. How confident are you that you can bypass the password?’ he asked.

‘Facebook will be easier: I can run a simple brute force attack on the password. I’ve a programme I wrote that narrows down possible passwords by scanning all social media and online information for any subject. Once I’ve got that password, if she’s not careful, I’m betting it will be the same all over. Most people aren’t security-conscious and are just plain lazy.’

‘Do it. We need a break, and at least I won’t get her killed this way.’

While Pet worked, Tom took the opportunity to take a short stroll to the twenty-four-hour convenience store nearby to buy a second-class stamp for the envelope containing the SD card, and two coffees. Posting the envelope, he felt pleased that it was safe and out of the way for at least a couple of days.

Returning to the apartment with the coffees, he found Pet punching the air in triumph.

‘Boom! Password cracked, and she was using the same for both as I expected. People are so lax!’

‘Genius is what you are, Pet. Let’s have a look.’

‘Okay, she has a reasonable number of photos saved in files and folders and her WhatsApp backup is available. There’s very little stored in her emails or SMS so I’m guessing she doesn’t really use them.’

‘Can we search for messages from our bent cop?’

‘Sure thing. I’m downloading the messages into Excel, so it’ll be easy. I can cross-reference with all the numbers we’ve encountered so far and see what we get.’ She typed furiously as she spoke before saying, ‘Right, there are a number of messages to and from our bent cop, who she has saved in her phone as “Toni.” Mostly arrangements to meet or slightly suggestive ones, and him declaring his adoration for her and how beautiful he is. Gee, what a creep.’

‘Carry on,’ said Tom.

‘Okay. Quite a few messages from our friend at the NCA as well, asking if she can sort parties out for the two of them, plus friends. Jesus, how many bent cops are there?’

That was a bit of a revelation. So whoever it was at the NCA feeding information to the bent cop was also using the Brankos’ services. That meant they had a hold over at least two cops or NCA agents.