‘Bastard!’ She was so angry she wanted to spit. ‘You sodding bastard! You really think you can prey on me like this?’

‘I’ve advised you to mind your tone,’ he said firmly. ‘I won’t say it again.’

‘For Christ’s sake … there’s a police officer dead!’

‘And was she a real police officer?’ he wondered. ‘Sounds like she didn’t have any qualms about topping one of her own colleagues!’

Lucy stared at the body, still helpless and horror-struck by that reality.

‘Who is this anyway?’ McCracken asked. ‘You said her name was Smiley?’

‘Ruth Smiley,’ Lucy replied.

‘And she was in the Robbery Squad … for real?’

‘Yes, for real!’ Lucy’s anger flared again. Somewhat pointlessly, she realised. Smiley had hardly behaved like a genuine copper. Not that evening, at least.

‘Did she arrange for you to meet her here?’ McCracken asked.

‘No, she …’

At first, Lucy’s mouth was too dry to say anything else. In the terrible chaos of flight and fight, and then in the midst this shocking, bloody aftermath, she hadn’t had time to ponder how it had all started. Until now.

‘That was Danny Tucker. Sweet mother of …’

Her father eyed her with interest. ‘Who’s Danny Tucker?’

‘DS Danny Tucker …’ She still struggled to find the words. ‘Also with … with the Robbery Squad. They were both in the Robbery Squad.’

McCracken sniffed. ‘And by the sounds of it, this Robbery Squad of yours does exactly what it says on the tin.’

‘No … no!’ Lucy blurted, staggering tearfully away. ‘This isn’t happening.’

McCracken watched her coolly. ‘I can see you’re under pressure, love. I would be too. But perhaps it’s time to set your police loyalties aside and put your thinking cap on, eh?’

She spun back. ‘This can’t be it! It just can’t!’

‘Where is he now, this DS Tucker?’

‘I don’t know, but … but …’ She could barely bring herself to say it a second time, but she had to face the facts: Danny Tucker had been the one who’d told her to meet him here. No one else.

‘Were you getting close to an answer?’ McCracken wondered.

‘I’d just …’ Lucy’s words trailed off, as she toyed with the idea that maybe Tucker had been shot as well, and now was lying dead somewhere nearby. But she knew that he hadn’t. Danny and Ruth had been close. Plus, how weird had it seemed that he’d asked her to come and see him here … in a Godforsaken place like this?

And there was no denying it: she had been close.

Tears dripped down her cheeks as she acknowledged this to herself. Her discovery of the Mission Hall CCTV and her plan to pull the rest of the town centre footage to see which cars were in the vicinity must have been the clincher.

‘Something tells me you know stuff we don’t,’ McCracken said.