‘Dougie said the garden isn’t secure behind the soup shop,’ I told Shen. ‘The gate barely shuts, the posts are wobbly, and the entrance is from an alley which runs behind all these shops, parallel to Brick Lane. The CSIs are still processing the forensic evidence from that area.’

Shen was still leafing through her notebook. ‘A female eyewitness said she heard about the flash mob on Facebook. The analysts say there’s an LfA Facebook page, as well as a website, and Frazer posted there last week about the protest in Brick Lane.’ Shen paused. ‘There’s more.’ She pointed out of the Portakabin window at a restaurant, two doors along from Rosa Feldman’s newsagent’s, in the other direction from Alchemia. ‘See the Raj, over there. One of the chefs told H-2-H that he saw a group of teenagers arrive on Friday with speakers. They set them down, switched on the music and started dancing. He was out the front, having a cigarette. Commented on how young some of the kids were. We showed him the photograph from Ali’s witness statement, and he’s identified one of the boys as Ali Kousa.’

‘That’s interesting. Sophie Williams told us that Ali, Riad and John arrived at the flash mob together, but Ali denied having anything to do with the music.’

Shen passed me the chef’s name and address.

Iqbal Chowdhury

247a Raleigh House

Sclater Street

I shuddered at the mention of Raleigh House. ‘That place is a blast from the past. It’s on the Gunthorpe Estate.’ Memories flooded into my mind. ‘Have any of the witnesses said they knew the flash mob’s theme was anti-gentrification?’

‘Some did. Some claim they didn’t.’ Shen rolled her eyes.

‘Did none of them think to question how a dance in the street to music was going to do anything about gentrification?’

‘Reading between the lines, I think lots of them didn’t bother to ask.’

‘Ali is ten, for goodness’ sake.’ I cursed under my breath. ‘Who the hell are LfA? Is no-one checking how old these kids are? It’s so irresponsible.’

‘I haven’t seen any mention of age checks, Boss.’

Jackie was right. ‘These bloody websites and protest groups are luring kids into stuff they’re too young to understand.’ I kicked at the floor of the cabin and it sent a rattle through the entire space. ‘For kids who are bored or hacked off, a mixed-gender event with music, booze and drugs might seem like a good laugh, but they don’t seem to realise they’re vulnerable to exploitation.’ I thought about the London riots in 2011, where youngsters were recruited into illegal activities simply because they were bored, angry and fed up with their lives.

‘Have any of our witnesses actually met Frazer? Any idea of his age, background? Is he even male?’

Shen screwed up her nose. ‘We asked each witness.’