Despite the innate loyalty of all his men, he only had one personal confidant when it came to really sensitive matters, and that was Shallicker, who’d never been merely a minder/enforcer, but a bosom buddy as the two of them had risen through the ranks together. The big guy had many times proved his unswerving support since, but McCracken most likely wouldn’t even have trusted Mick with the knowledge that his estranged daughter was a police detective had the guy not been around when he himself had first learned about it. That made the deputy only one of four people privileged enough to know about this, the others being McCracken himself, Lucy and Cora – it was the ultimate inner sanctum – but if it ever occurred to McCracken that Mick Shallicker might one day seek to feather his own nest by blowing the gaff on them, he simply put it from his mind. He couldn’t afford to do anything else.

‘There is something,’ McCracken said. ‘Sounds like our Lucy’s been working with the Robbery Squad.’

‘Yeah?’ Shallicker looked impressed. ‘Talk about going up in the world.’

‘Don’t know what she’s doing with them … whether it’s a full-time appointment, or she’s just been seconded, or whatever it is they call it. The point is, there may be something in it for us.’ He thought about it again. ‘Put a tail on her, Mick. Not all the time … just when it’s convenient, and not so obvious that whoever it is gets caught. Remember, she’s no stone fucking jug. Let’s see where she goes, who she talks to. Build up a dossier. Just between us, of course.’

Shallicker switched the engine on and put the car in gear. ‘Even if she is on the Robbery Squad, she won’t necessarily be working these blags.’

‘We won’t know until we pay some attention, will we?’

Shallicker drove out of the pub car park. ‘She gets around, that lass of yours … I’ll say that for her.’

‘She’s no lass of mine. Better remember that, pal. Or we’ll all wind up in the Ship Canal.’

Chapter 23

Though she’d made two pretty good arrests, Lucy’s day went downhill from late-afternoon.