‘Probably no more unusual than the fact this place has stood empty for as long as it has,’ White Suit said. ‘Anyway, it’ll just be some bunch of navvies … so it’s possible you’re overestimating both their curiosity and their intellect. They’ll do what they usually do. Smash through the ground with diggers and JCBs. All they’ll ever see is clumps of soil and rubble, and when they find the underground stream … so what, it’s a stream?’

Yellow Suit considered this. ‘I’m pissed off, you know. That plan for Cunningham … it should have worked. It could have worked.’

‘Well, he said he thought it was complex,’ White Suit replied. ‘And now he’ll be able to say he told us so.’

‘He still gave us the go-ahead.’

‘He said he thought it was complex. Not too complex. Anyway, we pulled it off.’ White Suit closed the iPad down. ‘The bit we fucked up … or rather, the bit you fucked up … that should’ve been the easy part.’

Yellow Suit stood over the first drum and peered down. It already looked like boiling stew, though sections of a vaguely humanoid outline were occasionally, fleetingly visible. ‘I reckon they’ll really start looking for this one.’

‘That’s the name of the game.’ White Suit came forward. ‘But, being professionals, we shouldn’t have to worry about that, should we? That’s why you got bollocked. That’s why even the slightest fuck-up, even a fuck-up that occurs in private, where no one else knows about it, is unacceptable.’

Yellow Suit nodded, acknowledging the situation.

It wasn’t like there was a point in arguing.

There was never any arguing with him.

Chapter 16

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Lucy found herself busy in the nick until quite late that Monday night. One day in, and the workload was mountainous.

In addition to Tessa Payne, she had three other officers working with her: DC Tim Lawless from Serious Crimes (who wasn’t impressed to be under the tactical command of a divisional detective); DC Judy Stryker, who was on loan from Crowley Robbery (and who also didn’t want to be there); and PC Malcolm Peabody, who was quite a bit happier with the gig, no doubt seeing it as his first real taste of CID, though his inspector had only agreed to see him put into plain clothes for one week, at which point they would review it.

‘One week,’ Lucy chuckled, as she drove. ‘Hope it’s bloody sorted by then.’