Archie Leonard shook his head. ‘So far we haven’t located her, but she has been seen in the last few days, and I’ve heard her name has been tenuously linked to Fluke.’

‘What does she look like now, Archie?’ asked Nikki, thinking of the old photo on the CID room wall.

‘Sly as ever. Short cropped, boyish-style fair hair and stick thin is all I can say.’ He looked at her with a chilly expression. ‘But, believe me, Nikki, the minute she shows her head above the parapet, you’ll be the first to know.’

Mickey’s midnight confessions certainly did make interesting reading, but as far as Nikki could see, the boy had done nothing serious enough to warrant an attempt on his life. She read it again. Mickey had stolen a mask from a consignment, worn it to impress his cousin Liam, then nicked six more from the next delivery and sold them to Liam. Enough to get him chucked off the team, and maybe a good thumping, but to strip him and almost beat him to death? No way.

Nikki placed the handwritten document on her desk and stared at it. The boy had given them the exact locations of the mask drops and a concise list of the places where they were to be distributed. Plus he had sneakily followed Marcus, listened into private phone calls and even managed to track Fluke to his rented property, which was more than the police and the Leonard family combined had managed. So, what more did the boy know? A streetwise kid like that may well have heard of Frankie Doyle, and if he could get an address for one slime-ball, maybe he could get an address for another?

‘Ma’am?’ The WPC whom she had sent to obtain the warrant popped her head around the door. ‘Got it for you. The magistrate wanted to know the ins and outs of the proverbial duck’s whatnot, but he has signed it.’

‘Good. Leave it on the desk, Constable.’ Nikki went back to Joseph’s notes, then looked up as the woman walked back to the door. ‘Oh, and on your way out, would you ask DC Cullen to come to my office.’ She paused, then said, ‘And thank you, good work.’

The constable glanced back, with a slight rise to her eyebrow, then smiled. ‘No problem, ma’am.’

Cat almost ran into her office. ‘You’ve got it, ma’am?’

‘All yours.’ Nikki held the document out to her. ‘And as much as I’d like to come with you, I’ve got more than enough on already this morning.’

‘Don’t worry, Guv, I’ll report in as soon as we’re through.’

‘You’re pretty sure you’ll find something, aren’t you?’

Cat nodded. ‘Oh yes, the more I think about that squeaky clean “We have no secrets” attitude, and that clinically clean and clutter-free home, the more I think they’re hiding something.’