Kate stopped chewing and stared at Caitlin, dumbstruck.

Everybody knew. They all knew about her and Patrick Kelly.

‘Don’t look so shocked, now. The police force is a very small world, you know. Look at it this way - if a new man or woman comes to a division, within twenty-four hours everyone knows their past track record, their marital status, everything. It’s just one of those things. Now then, the fella you’re going around with is a big man in his own way, and it was natural it would come to the attention of people. I don’t think that the uniforms know, but Ratchette knew, and I knew, and now the Chief Constable knows. I gather he had a visit from your friend yesterday, and apparently he has some even bigger friends of his own. Probably how he’s kept out of clink for so long.’

Kate was looking into her glass, embarrassed. Caitlin felt a twinge of sympathy for her.

‘Shall I tell you something? It’s a thing I’ve always believed. Most people in the force could have gone one way or the other. Either become a villain - and I mean villain as in bank robber and such, nothing to do with perverts or nonces - or become a policeman. You need the inbred cunning to be a villain in order to catch one. That’s why so many of them get on so well.

‘Myself, I’ve nicked men I’ve had a great deal of respect for. I’m not talking about gas meter bandits or kiters. I’m talking about men who have masterminded some of the biggest bank robberies in the country. I admire them, Katie, even while I’ve tried to find them and lock them up. Everyone has dreams of winning the pools, whatever. These men set out to steal money that makes the average person in the street drool just thinking about it.

‘Kelly now, he works within the law, and sometimes just outside it, but he’s first and foremost a businessman. Only he’s not a kosher businessman like, say - oh, I don’t know - Henry Ford or someone of that ilk. He’s part of the new breed, and for myself I admire him. Anyone who can get that eejit of a Chief Constable shitting in his pants has to have something good going for him.’

Kate smiled slightly but her brain was whirling.

Kelly had gone and made the Chief Constable ‘see sense’. That is exactly how he would put it when she challenged him about it. In the little time she had known Patrick she had got to understand him so well. In Patrick’s mind there was no black and white. Just Patrick Kelly’s opinion. And that opinion was worth more to him than the crown jewels.

‘Look at it this way, Kate, he got you what you wanted and - I admit now - what I wanted. This is the most difficult case I’ve ever worked on in my life. We’ve had four horrific murders and literally nothing to go on except for the bugger’s car. And the witnesses can’t even agree on the colour of that! Take this opportunity and use it, girl, it’s like a gift from God.’