‘Not exactly.’ Cat leant back against the wall. ‘James and his wife are both top IT boffins. I checked her out after she said she worked at the University, and she did. She taught high-level computer studies. He’s a graphic designer, moved on to web design, and the other thing they have in common is weird sex. The more perverted the better.’

Nikki’s mouth dropped. ‘You are talking about the same couple that we met the other day?’

‘Oh yes, Guv. Mr and Mrs Prim-and-Proper have produced some of the worst pornographic computer games I’ve ever seen in my life.’

‘And they charge extortionate money to download them, ma’am,’ added Dave. ‘One of them costs nearly £500 quid!’

‘And as you can imagine, Guv, it is not one to play with your mum or your dad around!’ Cat screwed up her face in distaste. ‘We’ve got them both downstairs in custody, Guv, and frankly I think we are only scratching the surface with these games. If it’s okay with you, I’d like to hand the whole thing over to a specialist unit to deal with.’

‘Considering what we’re trying to handle at present, I wholeheartedly agree.’ Nikki frowned. ‘But you said something about it not being a dead end?’

‘Ah yes, well, before the masks materialized on the streets, you had to pay to get hold of Lyco Rapture, and the Jameses may be a pair of pervs, but they are painstakingly precise on their bookkeeping.’

‘They have copies of all their transactions for the last three years,’ said Dave.

‘How does that help us?’

Dave leaned forward. ‘Because a few of their customers were particularly interested to know if they had any other games that had the Griffyx in them, and the Jameses made notes to that effect. When they produced a follow-up game, they contacted the interested parties and told them.’

‘And they kept the contact details?’ Nikki was beginning to understand.

‘Yup,’ smiled Cat. ‘But when they saw kids suddenly wearing Griffyx masks, dear Terry and Bella nearly shit a brick! It didn’t take too long to realize that the masks were going to be big trouble and they may be implicated.’

‘Which could scupper their very lucrative sideline,’ Dave interjected. ‘So they ran a blog, with a link to a free download of the game, then hacked into their own business computer to make it look like they were the victims of a cyber theft.’

‘And we’d have swallowed that if it hadn’t been for you, Cat. Well done.’ Nikki gave her a rare smile. ‘So, have you got the list of names?’

‘I’ve sent their hard drive to IT to retrieve the data. Terry James offered to get it for us, but I didn’t let him within touching distance. I suspected he’d installed some ingenious destruct programme.’