‘I don’t believe you, Harry!’ She tugged at her hair, all but ripping it from her scalp. ‘Look … me and my mother are in real and serious danger.’

‘Come off it, Luce. You’re not seriously telling me the Robbery Squad are doing these jobs?’ He half-laughed. ‘Knocking people off, for Christ’s sake …’

‘Jesus wept, Harry … you don’t like these guys anyway! You yourself told me not to trust them. Why is this so hard to believe?’

‘I didn’t say they were blaggers, for God’s sake!’

‘Neither am I. Just some of them, but I don’t know who … apart from the ones I’ve named. That’s why I want it to be Division who come and bring us in.’

‘Lucy … I go around saying stuff like this, I’m going to come over a right dickhead.’

‘Well, that’ll be a first, won’t it!’

‘Where’s your evidence for any of this?’

‘For God’s sake … Ruth Smiley’s dead body lying on the Archways, full of bullet holes, is probably a start.’

‘Really?’ He sounded more than a little dubious. ‘I’ve been and there’s nothing there.’

‘You looked on Jubilee Gardens?’

‘The whole length of it.’

‘Shit!’ she said. ‘Look … they’ve probably moved it. It’s no surprise. There’s more than two of them. But they can’t have cleaned the site till it’s spotless. Get Forensics down there, and you’ll find rafts of proof.’

‘Lucy … I can’t call CSIs on the basis of a chat over the phone.’

‘Which is why I need you to get me to a place of safety, then I can give you and Stan a full statement.’

‘All right … okay.’ He still sounded reluctant.

‘Jesus, Harry … I think we need a bit more urgency from you than this. You’ve just heard me say there’s more than one of two them.’

‘Yeah, but …’

‘No buts, mate. There may be a lot more than two of them … there are certainly some non-Squad members involved. I ought to know, as they’ve chased us halfway across town tonight, shooting at us. I mean what the hell’s going on. Has no one even reported a motorcycle accident down at the XS?’

‘Dunno, do I … I’m still officially on the sick.’

‘For Christ’s sake, Harry … just get on the phone to Stan. And do it quickly. These non-Squad people, I have no clue who they are, but they’re a whole new level of nasty.’

‘I said all right, I’m getting onto it …’

‘Harry, I’ve got my mum with me because they attacked her house. If you don’t believe me, go and look there. The place has been trashed.’

‘I’ll check that out too …’

‘Not till you’ve told Stan Beardmore what’s going on, and got some people out here.’

‘Where’s “here”?’