It was a long call, and she didn’t know if she was safe going back to Eden House. At this point, she had no idea who she could trust outside her own small team, and that didn’t include Will. But then he’d told her himself that he was no longer a part of her team. It hurt.

She’d called Emma first to update her. ‘You might want to go home.’

Emma understood. They were at a turning point, with no way back, and she wouldn’t know how to handle the counter-corruption unit.

‘They have ways of getting information that you don’t see coming,’ Kelly told her. ‘You could compromise yourself without realising it. We’ll all have to be interviewed at some point; until then, the investigating team will be suspended, including Ormond, and we have no idea what he has up his sleeve. So you might as well go home. We’ve got our evidence; it’s just a case of arresting the Cotton brothers now, and all units are looking for them.’

‘All right, boss, if you’re sure?’

She was.

The phone call to Counter-Corruption lasted an hour. They were serious allegations, and needed to be thoroughly investigated. Pending any decisions, Kelly and her team would have access to Eden House only for interview. Kelly had seen the unit in action once before, at the Met, and they left nothing to chance. She knew her offices would be taken over by an impartial team, who would not care what was said: they looked only at facts. It was an unpleasant business and no one wanted to be a part of it, but she was left with no choice. She had to hold her nerve, armed with the knowledge that she’d done everything correctly. She might never know what Ormond’s defence would be, but she had no control over that. She had to believe that the truth would win in the end.

She heard a phone ring in the back and cocked one ear when Jackson answered.

Rob had driven down the east side of Derwent Water, past the jetties to the south and back up the west side, flanking Cat Bells. The lads had been quiet in the back, and Kelly wondered if they’d ever been over this way and knew how beautiful it was.

Finally her call was done and she rubbed her eyes, exhausted. Jackson too hung up.

‘That was Jason Cotton.’

Kelly spun around. ‘What did he say?’

‘He wants to offer me a deal.’

‘Is he crazy? Do you think it’s a trap? Surely he’ll know you’ve been talking to us?’

‘Not necessarily. Sharon wouldn’t grass, and everybody else has been focused on the protests.’

‘What sort of deal?’

‘To get the two hundred K. Working together, me and him.’

‘What about his brother?’

‘He said he was cutting him loose.’

‘It sounds like a trap to me,’ Rob said.