‘Lee Gaskin’s an embittered little oik with a personality bypass,’ Tucker replied. ‘You were right, yourself, when you said he’s got mummy issues. It may be that Lee had better reason than anyone to be part of this. But the reality is that losing his brother completely fucked his head up. He came into this job needing a parent figure, and found one in Mandy Doyle, who you then duly erased. As such, he’s volatile, awkward and above all, gobby … there was no chance on earth we were going to trust a character like that.’

‘Obviously not,’ Lucy said. ‘Only disciplined psychopaths for your line of work.’

Tucker showed another of his trademark grins, missing teeth included.

‘Three of us were more than enough,’ he said. ‘Any more cooks than that … well, you know.’

‘This isn’t going to work,’ she told him. ‘You must realise that? It doesn’t matter how effectively you make Mum and me disappear, everything’ll come out in the wash in due course.’

‘I’m not so sure,’ he replied. ‘One thing we’re really good at in Robbery Squad is improvising on the hoof.’

‘You mean winging it?’ she countered. ‘Making it up as you go along?’

‘Isn’t that what all good coppers do?’ Harry asked.

‘Yeah, but you’re not coppers. Not anymore.’

‘I’d love to know where you get off being so uppity, Lucy,’ Tucker said, sounding less amused. ‘You have no actual clue what’s going on here, do you? You still think this was about trying to save the Squad … creating a crime wave so we’d be deemed indispensable? Do you really think that’s all this was?’

‘I don’t care, frankly.’ And fleetingly, as Lucy regarded the insensible shape of her mother, that was the truth.

It was an ugly thought that suddenly it didn’t seem so imperative getting Cora to the hospital – because perhaps no medical treatment would be needed where they were headed now. Of course, it was difficult to equate a thought like that with either Danny Tucker, the all-round good egg, or Harry Jepson, the bone-idle bumbler whose best asset was his sub-standard banter. But in all honesty, now that the shock of revelation was fading, so was Lucy’s righteous anger – to be replaced by a dull but rising sense of fear.

‘We didn’t rob anyone who didn’t deserve it, Luce,’ Harry said, still in chatty mode. ‘Some, we didn’t even do a full number on. We let the strippers go unharmed … spared a little shit of a Scouse drug-dealer so new to the game he virtually squeaked when he walked.’

‘Only saved your full ire for the real players, is that it?’ she said. ‘Except you didn’t, did you? Pimps, bookies, corrupt sports agents … second-division idiots you could probably have nicked legally if you’d done some homework on them.’

Harry chuckled. ‘Yeah, but that’s the whole point.’