Tucker could easily testify that she was supposed to have met him here, and perhaps add some lie that he’d got delayed and sent Smiley instead. Maybe concoct another lie, maybe say that Smiley was concerned that Lucy was going to replace her on the team – which had led to a fight. And good God, they’d ended up having one hell of a fight. Lucy’s DNA would be all over the body. Her face had been scratched, so she’d even left skin under Smiley’s fingernails.

‘No … no.’ Still she shook her head. ‘I have to call this in. Even if I’m arrested and investigated, I can sort this out. There must be all kinds of evidence round here that Smiley was shooting at me.’

‘Not for much longer,’ Shallicker chuckled.

‘That’s right,’ McCracken said. ‘This whole estate’s going under the demolisher’s hammer in a week or so, isn’t it? Nothing left but mountains of rubble.’

‘Good Lord …’ Lucy suddenly understood why Danny had wanted her to meet him here.

‘Besides … do you really think it’ll get that far?’ McCracken shrugged again. ‘However many of these bastards there are, you were closing in on them. Oh, they’ll make a show of arresting you. But in reality, they still want you dead.’

She shook her head. ‘They won’t be able to pull that off. Not when I’m in custody.’

‘You’ve just indicated you don’t know who they are. Or how many they are. I wouldn’t walk voluntarily into their arms, if it was me.’

Lucy tried to think straight. It was too much. It was simply too much.

‘Go and get the car,’ McCracken told Shallicker, handing over the keys to his Bentley. ‘Bring it down to the fence.’

The big minder trudged away up the cobbled street.

‘And that’s it?’ Lucy said. ‘You’re leaving … just walking away?’

‘So are you,’ McCracken replied, ‘if you’ve any sense. What do you not understand about them trying to kill you? And do you seriously believe that if they’ve tried it once, they won’t try again?’

She couldn’t answer, so he turned and walked away.

This jolted Lucy into a hurried pursuit, urging her to shout out an order, to tell him that he needed to stay and give evidence, that he had to help her tell the truth. But she knew it would be futile.

By the time they reached the top of the street, Shallicker had already brought the Bentley down to the gap in the fence. He waited alongside it at the head of the rugged slope.

‘I’m not leaving,’ Lucy said defiantly. ‘I can’t.’