He stepped around her, unashamed in his admiration for her leather-clad form, which irked her, though it was insolence rather than an actual threat – and anyway it didn’t irk Lucy as much as it did Kelly Allen, or ‘Hells Kells’, as Lucy had once scornfully (and secretly) known her, a busty beauty of a biker chick, famous in the group not just for her impressive physique, but for her waist-length crimson-dyed hair, which very much matched her temperament. Many years ago, Kells had zealously sought out Armstrong’s personal affection, and when she’d finally secured it – and it didn’t come easily – she’d defended that status like a tigress.

Kells currently watched from about ten yards away, not looking her sexy best in a raggedy old Afghan coat, but her kohl-rimmed eyes blazing under her blood-red fringe.

Armstrong, meanwhile, had moved his attention on to Lucy’s bike.

‘I heard you’d written Il Monstro off chasing some bad guys,’ he said.

‘Banged it up a bit,’ she replied. ‘Nothing that wouldn’t fix.’

‘How about the villains of the piece?’

‘They’re both doing life.’

‘Ouch.’ He grinned. ‘Should’ve known better than to mess with you, eh?’

‘So should you by now. What’s this about?’

‘Don’t worry,’ he chuckled. ‘I’m not after rekindling that fire we once had together.’

‘Good … because that’s dead.’ She could sense the rest of them watching her in expectant silence, which annoyed her all the more – it might be a police thing, but Lucy never liked being the only person on the plot who didn’t know what was going on. ‘In addition to which,’ she said, ‘it’s late and I’m in Court tomorrow. So, whatever it is, make it quick.’

‘All right … can we walk a little?’

‘If you don’t want the rest of the crowd to know what you get up to, you shouldn’t bring them with you,’ she said as they strolled along a narrow, moonlit path. ‘Or is that like asking someone to go out without his pants on?’

‘It’s them I want to talk to you about,’ Armstrong replied. ‘Or one of them. But there’s no point everyone being party to the nitty-gritty, is there?’

She supposed he was right about that. The rest of the clan would know that he’d asked her here to make some kind of deal, but the fewer of them who knew what it specifically entailed, the less chance there was that the info would leak out.

‘The word is you’re a big noise now,’ he said. ‘A full-time detective no less.’

‘And?’

He turned to face her, his wolfish features saturnine in the woodland gloom. ‘I need your expertise.’

Lucy had expected nothing less, but was still cheesed off about it. It was amazing how many of these outlaw gangs fell back on the law when it suited them.