Lucy held the same rank as the search officers, but they deferred to her naturally, not just because of her length of service, twelve years, but because she’d been point-man on this operation from the start, and because, even though a lowly divisional detective, she already had a rep for breaking tough cases.

‘Here’s the deal,’ she said, when they were back in the kitchen. ‘We’re fully authorised to search this pad, so I want every inch of it going over, yeah? If necessary, it needs physically ripping apart.’

There were thinly veiled groans. Most of these officers, including Peabody, had been on duty for several hours after their normal shifts had supposedly finished. They were being paid for it, but inevitably fatigue was setting in.

‘Seriously, Lucy?’ Peabody groaned. ‘All this for a dog-collar?’

‘Anything we can hit this bastard with, we have to do it,’ she said.

‘Won’t he have sold it on by now?’ another copper asked. ‘I mean, if it’s worth that much … why would he hang onto it?’

‘We’re not walking away from here without having a good look around,’ she said simply. ‘That dog-collar’s too valuable.’

More irritated expressions; more shuffling feet.

‘At least,’ she said, ‘that’s going to be the official line.’

Immediately, their expressions changed. Feet stopped shuffling.

‘Pricks like this guy Mahoney always have their fingers in more than one illegal pie,’ Lucy said. ‘So that’s what we’re really looking for. Anything else we might be able to use, but it’s got to be good.’

‘Aren’t we only supposed to be looking for stuff relevant to the case?’ someone queried.

‘Section 19, PACE,’ Lucy said. ‘A constable engaged in a lawful search of a premises may seize anything if he or she has reasonable grounds for believing that it is evidence in relation to an offence he or she is investigating … or any other offence.’

They pondered this.

‘Why do you think he’s coughed to the dog-fighting so readily?’ she asked them.

‘’Cause he’s no choice,’ Peabody said.

‘Maybe, but maybe also because he wants us out of here quickly … before we find something else.’

With a greater degree of enthusiasm than previously, and now under Lucy’s direction, the team went at it again, this time more robustly. First, they did the bedrooms, which were odious pits of filth and slovenliness, moving bookcases so they could look behind them, yanking out the contents of wardrobes and doors, checking under beds, lifting rugs and carpets, even dislodging loose floorboards and peering underneath. Downstairs, they investigated the under-stair closet, which was filled with what appeared to be rubbish, though there was a double-barrelled shotgun there. Knowing Mahoney, it was almost certainly unlicensed, but it was unloaded, and a vigorous search of the under-stair crawlspace provided no cartridges either, while the weapon itself looked so ancient that it might even be classifiable as an antique, which would exempt it.