‘Are you?’ By his grave expression, he was perfectly serious. ‘One of these bad apples is now dead, but there’s at least one other one still running around, and how many more on top of that?’

Again, Lucy tried to resist his unerring logic.

All the evidence pointed to three blaggers and no more, in some cases only two. That didn’t mean they didn’t have support units out there … but surely not? The Robbery Squad were an elite police outfit; handpicked detectives all with superb records. But then, hadn’t that been the same of the Flying Squad down in London, on whom the Manchester Robbery Squad had originally been based? She recalled Operation Countryman – it had been before her time, back in the 1970s, but it had seen the Flying Squad fall under suspicion, not for carrying out their own robberies, but for taking massive bribes. Only a couple of detectives had been convicted of actual crimes, as she recalled, but comments were still made that semi-autonomous, specialist units of that sort needed much tighter control, that they operated too far outside the police norm and, as such, were always likely to attract edgy characters.

But aside from Lee Gaskin, none of the other Robbery Squad members seemed to fulfil that stereotype.

For what it was worth, Lucy had already decided that Gaskin was the third member of the gang; she’d met some twisted, obnoxious coppers in her time, but he was like a creature from another world. On top of that, if anyone had a bona fide reason to engage in a shooting war with the underworld, it was him. But Danny Tucker? Ruth Smiley?

‘Look …’ She struggled to articulate this mass of contradictory thoughts. ‘Look … the Robbery Squad is full of time-served cops who’ve proved they’re solid. There’s no way it can be all of them.’

‘Doesn’t need to be all of them to put you on Shit Street,’ Shallicker said.

‘No … this is bollocks!’

‘They’ve already tried to pop you once, love.’

‘They don’t need to go that far now,’ McCracken added. ‘I mean, did anyone else know you were supposed to be coming here?’

Lucy shook her head. ‘I don’t think so.’

He shrugged. ‘In which case, all this Tucker character needs to do now is blame you for this murderous bitch’s death.’

‘Yeah, but no one’ll believe that …’

Even before she finished the sentence, Lucy realised that it was nonsense.