‘Are you sure you’re okay to do this?’ Tom asked him, nodding at the injured arm.

Michael raised his eyebrows dismissively.

‘I don’t want this to affect my merit award chances, but they won’t even give me the good pain relief, that’s how little damage was done. Two shagging Solpadine is all I’m allowed. Anyway, I’m grand. Let’s get this bastard.’

Tom clapped him on the good shoulder.

‘Come on, then.’

Tom and Michael greeted the two guards stationed outside and entered the room.

The hospital medical staff had propped Lane up on pillows, making him as comfortable as possible. The left side of his body was covered with a large bandage and he was attached to various drips. Both hands were cuffed to rails at either side of the bed. The blood loss had been significant, but Ray had aimed well, considering how close he’d fired to the man’s head. No major organs had been hit and Charlie Lane would live, the only legacy of the injury being some nerve damage in his arm.

Tom would have to get Ray down to the firing range to see if he really was as good a shot as everybody was now saying, or if the man in the bed had just been incredibly lucky.

Lane had refused the offer of a solicitor, so they were alone.

‘Inspector,’ he croaked, as the two detectives sat in the chairs placed beside the bed. ‘It looks like you got your wish. Here I am, alive. And I suppose you’re going to make sure my life is the hell I feared.’

‘Let’s be honest, now. Dead or alive, it was always going to be hellish.’ Tom’s voice was measured. ‘Where’s Fiona?’

‘I remember you asking me that last night. I suppose I should have expected it. Will you believe me if I tell you I don’t know?’

The inspector clenched and unclenched his fists. It was a calming technique that usually worked for him but on this occasion didn’t seem to be up to much.

‘I don’t have time to play games with you, Charlie. Or should I call you Cormac? Which do you prefer? What did your granddad call you?’

The other man gritted his teeth.

‘Animal. That’s what he called me.’

Lane closed his eyes, his expression anguished.