Shallicker almost sagged where he sat. His relief was clearly sincere.

‘I’m less sure about Charlie,’ Lucy added. ‘She was undergoing emergency surgery when I left. Whoever it was, they shot her in the left lung.’

‘Fuck …’ he breathed.

‘It didn’t help that you dumped them on the hospital forecourt like sacks of empties!’

‘What the fuck else was I supposed to do?’ He swerved left with shrieking tyres, to avoid sitting at a red light. ‘Call an ambulance? Give a statement? You think Wild Bill would be happy with that?’

‘I’m not sure he’ll be happy that you took them to the hospital at all. Don’t you have your own doctors for this kind of thing?’

Shallicker grimaced, as if this was something he’d been wondering about. ‘Yeah … sure. But that’s not something you can arrange on the hoof. And the way Frank and Blondie were bleeding so badly …’ He shook his head in disbelief. ‘Panicked, didn’t I! Felt sure they were both goners. Only just had time to get them into a disposable vehicle. After that, well … St Winifred’s was only around the corner. Even then, I didn’t think they were going to make it. To answer your question … I’ll still get a bollocking.’ He licked his dry lips. ‘It may be worse than that.’

‘Well, that’s the price you pay, Michael. For selling yourself body and soul to an organisation that really doesn’t give a shit about anyone.’

‘Mouthy cow you are at times.’

‘Yeah, well, I wonder why!’ She rounded on him. ‘Could it be anything to do with the fact that what you’ve just told me amounts to another load of underworld secrets I’m now obliged to keep from my superiors? You think I enjoy doing that? You think I’m happy being some kind of unofficial repository of gangland knowledge … a helpless spectator while you and the rest of your pathetic brood rape and pillage the whole fucking world!’

He glanced sidelong at her, surprised by the anger in her voice.

‘I’m not onside!’ she shouted. ‘Okay, Mick? I’m not one of you! I’ve got one interest only in what’s just happened to Frank McCracken, and that’s in who shot him.’

‘You don’t need to worry about that.’ He gave a sneering smile. ‘That’s already being taken care of.’

‘Oh, yeah?’

He made no reply.

‘And that’s all I get?’ she said. ‘Nothing? After telling you everything?’

‘You should be happy, shouldn’t you? Proves that I still think of you as a cop.’

‘I need to get back to the hospital … my car’s there.’