‘She’s homeless too,’ Lucy said, ‘so when you get close to her it’s all a bit scuzzy.’

‘A scuzzy druggie sex worker who dresses like a nun.’ Nehwal glanced at Beardmore. ‘Be a laugh trying to get a jury to take her seriously.’

‘What happened?’ Beardmore asked sternly, clearly thinking that he should have been copied in on this by now.

Lucy told them everything Sister Cassie had told her, adding that sometimes it was difficult separating fact from fantasy with such a flaky character, and that she’d been mulling over its potential value as evidence.

‘So, she didn’t actually see anyone grab this guy Holborn?’ Nehwal said.

‘No,’ Lucy admitted.

‘Which would make her testimony next to completely useless.’

‘That’s another reason why I haven’t reported it yet. But, ma’am, there’s something else.’

‘Go on …’

‘Sister Cassie said this was a dark-blue transit van.’

‘And?’

Lucy blushed a little. ‘There’s been a kind of urban myth in Crowley in recent months … that a black van’s been prowling the neighbourhoods at night, looking to snatch pets.’

‘Pets?’

‘Dogs, for the most part.’

Beardmore frowned. ‘I thought you’d wrapped up the dog-fighting enquiry?’

‘We have,’ Lucy said. ‘At least, we’ve charged everyone involved. But there was a whole list of missing dogs given to us, twenty-six in total … and the dog-fighting enquiry hardly accounted for any of them, including a dyed-pink Toy Poodle, which, when it disappeared from its owner’s garden in Cotely Barn, was wearing a gem-studded collar worth two grand – that one’s still missing.’

Nehwal folded her arms. ‘And I thought I was talking tenuous when I tried to link Harry Hopkins to Lorna Cunningham.’

‘I know this is a wild shot, ma’am,’ Lucy said. ‘But initially, I assumed that all the dog-nappings would be connected to this dog-fighting ring … you know, snatched from their owners for use as bait dogs. But most of the dogs we recovered from the dog-fighting farm, even the ones that were dead, had either been bought by the organisers or, in one or two cases, stolen. But as I say, there were lots of others reported missing that just weren’t there. And this black van that’s supposedly been used to snatch them … that wasn’t there either.’

Beardmore looked bemused. ‘You’re saying you think there’ve been two different parties nabbing dogs in Crowley? You’ve now shut one of them down, and the other one, which is still at large, has moved on to nabbing humans?’

Lucy shrugged. ‘I know it seems daft. But it’s the black van factor.’

‘Your van is supposed to be dark-blue.’

‘It could’ve been resprayed since. Plus, a lot of these dog-nappings were allegedly at night. Black, dark-blue … easy mistake to make.’

‘Lucy, there are dark-coloured vans everywhere,’ Nehwal said.

‘I know, ma’am, I know.’

‘But some gut instinct is telling you these cases are connected?’