‘It is going to get hot in here, I’m sorry to say,’ Torgau said. ‘But it doesn’t need to get terribly hot … so long as you play the game.’

‘For God’s sake!’ she hissed. ‘You’ve unlawfully imprisoned a police officer. How do you think this is going to end?’

‘That’s entirely up to you.’ He sat back with arms folded, as though contemplating the best way to start his game. ‘I’m what you might call a professional problem-solver. I mean, I operate a number of ordinary, legitimate businesses. But none of them make any money. My real gig is … well, let me tell you how it began. I was a child at the time, growing up on the same Moston estate as the legendary Bill Pentecost.’

Lucy was unsurprised to hear it confirmed that this thing was connected to the Crew.

‘I didn’t associate with Wild Bill back in those days,’ Torgau said. ‘I knew who he was, he knew who I was … but we had our own rackets. Me and my lot, we burgled, stole car radios, rolled drunks. But for all that, we were just punks, hustlers really. Bill had more of a plan. He was loan-sharking, ringing motors, running a whole stable of working girls before he was twenty. Then, one day, we learned about this gun shop down Alderley Edge way. It was off our normal patch, but we went over there, got inside, helped ourselves to … oh, forty or fifty shotguns. Hundreds of boxes of cartridges. Afterwards, we spent three months selling them out of the back of a van, all over the Northwest. Word had got around. Anyone planning a job, we were the armourers. This brought us to Wild Bill’s attention. He was setting up a real network by then, which meant that we were around at just the right time. We armed his desperadoes, and at a good price. The upshot, me and Bill … we became solid.’

‘Why are you telling me all this?’ Lucy asked, genuinely puzzled.

Torgau pondered. ‘It’s a good question, DC Clayburn. Most of my life, I’ve flown under the police radar. You can call it skill, you can call it luck, you can call it the Devil looking after his own. But after a lifetime dedicated to breaking the law – I mean, I’ve barely ever done an honest job and look at the life I lead – I have the smallest criminal record imaginable. So maybe, just maybe … this is an opportunity to show at least one of you what you’ve been missing. Cosy in the knowledge that it won’t mean a damn thing.’

‘Dad hasn’t told you what he was really good at yet,’ Ivana chipped in.

Lucy saw that she’d lifted the poker from the flames and was blowing gently on its tip, which had started to glow.

This was Torgau’s cue to talk a little more about himself.