‘Are we quite sure he’s not involved with that in any way?’ asked Niall suspiciously. ‘The masks seem to emanate from the Carborough, and we all know that Archie is the Big Daddy there.’

‘Sorry, PC Farrow, but Archie Leonard is as sincerely pissed about the troubles that they are causing as we are.’ She drew up a chair and sank back into it. ‘So, what have we got on the masks? Sergeant Easter? Any luck last night?’

Joseph stood up. ‘I managed to have an informative chat with the graffiti artist who has recently been decorating the Carborough. It’s fair to say that he’s been pretty badly frightened by whoever commissioned him. He really does not know who it is, but he gave me a website to check out regarding the name Griffyx.’

‘Well, bugger me! I’ve been working on that for days!’ muttered Cat Cullen. ‘So what’s the story, Sarge?’

‘I need your help with it.’ said Joseph. ‘The site is some sort of online game. All weird fantasy stuff.’

‘What sort of fantasy?’ Cat’s eyes lit up.

‘Violent, and pornographic. Not one for the kiddies, that’s for sure.’

‘Ooh, I bet that upset the good Reverend Easter,’ whispered an anonymous voice.

‘Whoever said that,’ hissed Nikki, ‘should keep their stupid mouth shut until they have something worth saying. Do you understand?’

She did not expect an answer, and she didn’t get one. Which was fine as she’d made her point. It wasn’t until she looked around afterwards that she noticed a lot of mildly surprised expressions. Apparently it must have been some while since anyone had heard Old Nick spring to the defence of a second in command.

Cat broke the silence. ‘So, Sarge, just pass all that computer stuff my way and I’ll take a look at it for you.’

‘I’ll bet you will!’ said Niall with a grin, and the awkward atmosphere dissipated.

Nikki rapped on the desktop. ‘Okay, anything else? Anything sensible, that is.’

‘Figures from Control show that mask-related crimes have increased to around ten a day, ma’am.’ said Yvonne. ‘And that doesn’t include the serious issues.’

‘And I’ve temporarily hit the wall regarding the manufacturing of masks, ma’am.’ said Cat. ‘I’m not giving up, but my main line of enquiry has gone AWOL, which leads me to believe that at least I am on the right track. It’s just getting trickier.’

‘Keep on delving, Cat. Discovering where they come from would be a major breakthrough.’ Nikki looked at the clock. ‘One last thing; does the tag “Fluke” mean anything to anyone?’

There was a low buzz of discussion, but the consensus of opinion came up only with a vague ‘It sort of rings a bell’.