It all came back to that phrase again: ‘Married to the job’.

‘That isn’t me,’ she said to herself, peering across the personnel yard.

The irony was, of course, that she’d finally, after all this time, found someone she liked. And yet it would be far from straightforward, working in the same nick as him. The gossip alone would drive her nuts.

She tapped her fingers on the wheel, struggling to see a way forward.

It wasn’t impossible that the Robbery Squad would be shut down and the problem, if not exactly taken away, at least lessened. It would certainly make a relationship easier if Danny was working in a different part of GMP. But did she honestly want the Robbery Squad to fold when she felt close to getting on board?

Some situation she’d found herself in: a leap forward professionally, or a leap forward in her love life? It could be one or the other. But apparently not both.

She switched the engine on, put the Jimny in gear, and caught her reflection in the rear-view mirror.

Mum was beautiful too when she was young, Lucy thought. Or so I’ve been told. So beautiful that she didn’t think she’d need a proper education, a proper job – and it almost was the ruin of her. But when she had a really difficult decision to make, she got it right.

But Lucy could hardly go and ask her mother’s advice now. Already, she could hear Cora’s words of wisdom ringing in her ears: ‘Are you kidding, love? Ditch the job, go with Danny, have his babies. If nothing else, you’ll make me happy in my old age.’

‘It’s different now, Mum,’ Lucy said as she drove out of the car park.

But was it?

Was it really?

Lucy Clayburn, the girl who’d always prided herself on knowing her own mind, drove home that night aching with indecision.

Chapter 19

In his capacity as Chairman of the Board, in other words head of the Crew, and therefore boss of bosses in the Northwest, Bill Pentecost rarely had to shout and bawl. His rep went before him. He’d started out strictly small-time, as a backstreet money-lender, but he’d always ensured that he got paid in full and on time, mainly through his propensity for crucifying malefactors to their own front doors or to bits of their furniture.

It has long been said that you can’t keep a good man down. But a more unspoken truth is that you can’t do it to a ruthless man.