It wasn’t all bad news about Harry. Aside from whiplash, facial bruising, three loose teeth and eight stitches in his bottom lip, he hadn’t suffered any serious contusions, and the scan revealed no fractures or brain injuries. Even so, the staff at St Winifred’s wanted to keep him in overnight because of concussion. Lucy couldn’t afford to spend too much time with him, just sufficient to hear his groggy griping as he was wheeled up from casualty to one of the short-stay wards, all the way pleading with her to take him home and look after him, herself – at which point he called her Sandra, his ex-wife’s name, which sealed the deal that he needed at least a couple of days on the sick. But the upshot of this was that, when Lucy got back to Robber’s Row, she had two prisoners to deal with, and the custody clock was already ticking on both of them.

DI Beardmore said that he wanted to interview Royton personally, but promised that the big hoodlum would be written up as one of Lucy’s prisoners. She was happy with this arrangement, as it meant she’d still get credit for the arrest but would now have more time to work on Jordan Burke, who she interviewed in company with DC Ken Birch, a hard-bitten, grey-haired veteran of the DO who was standing in for Harry.

At first, despite his earlier co-operation, the thief was evasive, clearly hoping for a deal. Lucy responded to this by steering the interview towards any accomplices he might have used during the burglaries, asking if he thought anyone would believe that stolen property could be stored in Janet O’Dowd’s council house without her knowing about it. Sensing where this was leading, Burke requested a break and a private consultation with his solicitor, after which he admitted everything, assuring her that he had been the only person involved and that Janet was too busy looking after Baby Caleb and ‘too fucking dozy anyway’ to have any clue what he was keeping in the unused upstairs room. He even went so far as to offer to work through a list of the stolen items, indicating which houses he’d taken them from.

So far so good. It all looked like a clean job – until a glitch appeared.

Lucy was able to marry up every single piece of stolen property with one of the complainants on Hatchwood Green, except for a diamond-studded Rolex watch.

‘You say you stole this from 19, Durkin Crescent?’ Lucy said, remembering that this was the home of old Reg Murgatroyd.

‘Sure,’ Burke replied. ‘Surprised me too, little house an’ all. But it was well-kept. Had a quick shuftie round the downstairs with the metal detector, and it was in the drawer under the telephone.’

Lucy glanced at Ken Birch, who looked equally bemused.