Tucker eyed her incredulously. ‘That set of drug-dealing cockroaches? Bloody right I would. You see, Lucy, you and your mum went there this evening to get high and to buy gear … and you fell out with them over the price. I’d found out from an informer what you were doing. So, I went over there to try and talk sense to you … caught them in the act of giving you a bad time, and got beaten senseless for my trouble. When I woke up, you two had both gone and so had the Low Riders.’

‘Love it,’ Harry said. ‘Perhaps you both legged it, eh, Luce? Maybe that’s why they went to your mother’s house? Trashed the place, chased you all round town?’

Lucy’s blood had turned colder than she’d ever known. To someone who hadn’t been party to tonight’s real events, this concoction of spur-of-the-moment lies could well have the ring of truth. Most likely, the attack on her mother’s house would already have been reported. And it was only a matter of time before someone called in to say they’d seen a biker chasing them, wielding a firearm.

‘All coming together, babes,’ Tucker said gravely.

‘I’m a copper,’ she said, trying another tack ‘Which means they won’t buy it so easily.’

‘They might if they find drugs in your house,’ Harry said.

Lucy could hardly refute that. And she knew how easy it would be for them to plant a bit of gear.

‘They’ll go over every wrinkle in the story a dozen times,’ she argued anyway. ‘If nothing else, they’ll find that tell-tale evidence I pulled this morning.’

‘Oh, yeah,’ Tucker said. ‘Your CCTV from the Mission Hall … the one you haven’t logged in yet.’

‘It’ll still be found.’

‘That did occur to me actually,’ he admitted. ‘Though, I strongly doubt it would mean anything to anyone not in the know.’

Lucy couldn’t pretend that this wasn’t true. He was correct: not only had she not mentioned to anyone else about the CCTV, but she hadn’t told anyone about the link she’d made between the Hatchwood Green burglaries and the Red-Headed League robberies. She’d mentioned to Kirsty Banks that she thought there might be a connection between the burglaries and the recent spate of violence, but crucially, not the robberies. In any case, the burglaries were officially closed. She hadn’t even formalised this offshoot enquiry by putting her suspicions on paper; in short, it didn’t exist.

‘However,’ Tucker said, ‘just in case, and because something else we do very well in Robbery Squad is cover our backs …’ he rummaged in the pocket behind the front passenger seat, and pulled out her laptop, ‘good job Harry found this when he went over to your mum’s place after you first called him, eh? We’ve got the pen-drive too, in case you were wondering.’