‘No … he doesn’t want to make a complaint. I tried to explain to him that in cases of serious assault, we don’t need a complainant to act, but he was adamant. Thing is, Danny … he knows he’s going to have to answer questions at some point. His crew turned up after the blag and got him away, but they didn’t even try to clean up. There’re buckets of blood up there, piles of shell casings … it’s a CSI’s dream, I’m telling you. There’s even a witness.’

‘Who?’

‘Some civvy … Shankhill wouldn’t give me his name, but if we can lift DNA from an old urine sample, though I’ve no idea if we can or not, we might get him that way. And anyway, I think Shankhill will talk eventually. He presumably still rents these premises and there’s been gunfire expended all over it. How long can he sit there and keep schtum? I mean, he doesn’t like us … that’s for sure, but he’s shit-scared of the Crew, because he owes them his usual tax and now he can’t afford to pay it. So, we’ll get leverage that way too. But more important than any of this … the real shit-kicker is that the blaggers let this civvy off scot-free. They robbed Shankhill of every pound-note he had, but they didn’t take anything from the civvy, even though he offered it. I know it’s circumstantial, but does that tie in with the charity thing, or what? I mean, Jerry McGlaglen joked with me about Robin Hood … but I don’t think it’s so far from the truth. And listen, there’s something else … if this team really have been donating their takings to good causes, I’ve got one of them on film.’

‘What’re you talking about now?’

‘I pulled some footage from a town-centre camera. Five days ago, in the early hours of the morning, the Methodist Mission Hall on Langley Street was gifted thousands of pounds in used banknotes by an unknown benefactor. At least, he’d like to believe he’s unknown … in reality he’s on this footage.’

‘How much footage is there?’

‘Only a couple of minutes, but it’s good. I’ve got it on a pen drive and copied it to my laptop.’

‘Do we get a good look at him?’

‘Enough to see that he’s wearing a ski mask.’

‘Red?’

‘Can’t tell.’

‘Shit!’ Tucker sounded genuinely exasperated.

‘Come on, Danny … what’re the chances it’s someone else? The other thing is … his vehicle’s out of sight, but there are lots of other cameras in that part of town. We only have to pull all the footage from the night in question, and each car we clock – and at that hour there won’t be too many of them – is gonna give us a brand new suspect.’