‘I’m not flavour of the month,’ her voice replied sulkily. ‘But I don’t think I’ve lost my job. At least, not yet.’

‘If you ever do, you can come and work for me.’

Rather to his surprise, she chuckled.

‘You think that’s funny?’ he said.

‘No. I’m just amused that you’re being so nice about it when my own side are likely to give me the cold shoulder for the next ten years.’

‘They say blood’s thicker than water.’

‘And that’s the only reason for your attitude, is it?’

‘Not quite. I’ll be honest, Lucy … I reckon you’ve helped out with a real knotty problem. You see, your reckless action has provoked me into doing something that has needed doing for some considerable time.’

‘I’m not sure I want to know what that is.’

‘No, best if you don’t.’ He sipped his malt. ‘But you’ve got some rewards coming, my love.’

There was a brief pause. ‘What are you talking about?’

‘No doubt we’ve got some heat coming our way, thanks to the Ripsaw Man,’ McCracken said. ‘But internally at least, I’m in what you might call an unassailable position. So I don’t think anyone will object if I drop a few names your way.’

Another pause. ‘What do you mean, exactly?’

He smiled, as though she was right in front of him. ‘You’ll need the arrests, won’t you? Make sure your lot understand that you’re still one of the good guys.’

‘Oh, I see. So, anyone you want off the streets, anyone who doesn’t get with the programme … I get to lock them up, and the problem goes away?’

‘And we’ll both be happy. What’s not to love, eh?’

‘You don’t think the rest of your people will see it differently, Dad?’

‘Maybe that was part of the package I sold them. How useful it can be, me having a copper for a daughter, rather than how risky.’

‘Well my people won’t be so forgiving.’ Her voice thickened with anger. ‘Not when they twig where it’s all coming from.’

‘Will it matter what the grunts say if you’re Manchester’s top thief-taker, if you’ve put more villains away than the average chief constable’s had three-course lunches?’

A silence followed. McCracken wished he could believe that she’d be mulling it over, working out the pros and cons, and ultimately, inevitably, figuring that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. But he knew that wouldn’t be the case, because, in the end, his daughter was actually very like him. She was a battler, and she had pride and ambition, and her own code of ethics. The fact that she’d be jailing criminals purely because other criminals didn’t want them on the street was hardly the crime-fighting career she’d dreamed of.