McCracken arched an eyebrow at Lucy, but no light of recognition came into his eyes. ‘Sadly … it’s happened so often.’

‘Hey,’ Nehwal said. ‘It may happen again.’

He frowned. ‘Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t it me who got shot?’

‘Yes, but you weren’t the only one who got hurt last night, and that’s a problem for us.’

‘Ah … so, do I need to have my solicitor present?’

‘I don’t think we need to make any of this official just yet. And I think it’s safe to say that, whoever did what we’re here to talk to you about … it wasn’t you.’

He shrugged, wincing slightly. ‘In that case I’ll endeavour to assist you any way I can.’

‘Great. So how well do you know Miles O’Grady?’

Again, he looked blankly from one to the other. ‘I don’t know him at all. Am I supposed to?’

‘He’s a former police officer,’ Nehwal said. ‘An ex-detective chief inspector with the Fraud Squad, no less. Three years ago, he was dismissed on suspicion of corrupt practices.’

‘Oh dear. Another one, eh?’

‘Though we actually suspect he may have been guilty of a whole lot more.’

McCracken tutted. ‘The standard of your recruits has taken a real nosedive in recent years.’

‘Either way, it’s all irrelevant now. Because he’s dead.’

‘I see.’

Lucy watched McCracken carefully; he expressed only mild surprise and concern at this, which would be the expected response if the deceased was someone he didn’t know. But then her father was an expert at playing this game.

‘He died last night,’ Nehwal said. ‘About five hours after you got shot.’

‘Well, Manchester’s a rough old city these days.’

‘He died rather unpleasantly, I’m afraid.’

‘Sorry to hear that.’ He still didn’t seem overly affected.

‘We found him in a burnt-out bus.’

He shook his head. ‘Disrespect for private property as well …’

‘Alongside the body of the bus driver.’

There was no immediate chippy response to that. For the first time, Lucy thought she spotted a flicker of emotion on her father’s face, a very slight tightening of his features, as if that last bit of info was something he really hadn’t wanted to hear. And this, she now realised, was exactly what Nehwal was aiming for. McCracken was an underworld professional. He’d never hesitate to kill if he deemed it necessary, but he wouldn’t like collateral damage, because that was always messy.

‘Maybe it was just an accident,’ he said in a reasonable voice. ‘And this O’Grady guy was the last passenger on the last bus home.’

‘If only it was that simple,’ Nehwal replied. ‘Both bodies were extensively burned, but not to such an extent that we couldn’t identify the cause of death fairly quickly.’

‘I’m sure you’re dying to tell me what that was.’