A few years before she had been witness to one of their jobs. It concerned a detective sergeant with a taste for exotic holidays and even more exotic women. He had been on the take. Kate had had to stand by with the rest of her colleagues as the man was set up and routed.

It had not been a pretty sight. She had felt sorry for him because most officers used their status for something, whether it was the odd free meal or a few pounds extra for a hobby. She was not saying that she agreed with it, just that it went on, a perk of the job. The ones the CIB should be looking out for, to her mind, were the officers who raided a flat, found a couple of weights of cannabis and stashed half of it before they made the collar. The cannabis would make its way back on to the street and the officers would pocket the money. To her that was a crime, not going to a restaurant for a nice meal on your wedding anniversary and getting a bottle of decent champagne thrown in because you knew the owner ran an after hours card club.

Some laws were just made to be broken, and when you finally realised that, you became a much better officer. Why go after the silver plate when you could get the twenty-four carat gold? She wanted the criminals, the real lawbreakers, not the flotsam and jetsam that made up the majority of collars.

It was like when police visited convicted felons and said to them, ‘We’re going to go back to court and you’re going to admit to another thirty burglaries. It won’t affect the time you’re doing, they’ll be classed as TIC.’ Taken into consideration. Which made the figures at the end of the year look great. On paper it looked as if they had solved more crimes than they really had. Except the perpetrators of the crimes the convicted man had put his hand up for were still getting off scot free. Case closed, thank you very much.

Kate drove to Patrick’s house with a heavy heart. Her job was her life. At one time, it was all she had had, except for Lizzy.

Patrick gave her a cup of coffee and told her about Sinclair.

‘Caitlin had already told me about it, an old friend of his had tipped him the wink.’

He looked at her. She seemed worried, her usual happy expression was strained.

‘Well, I have a solution to our problem, but I thought I’d get your say so first.’

‘What is it?’ Kate’s voice sounded hopeful and Kelly was glad about that because he wasn’t at all sure how she was going to take what he had to say.

‘Well, it’s your husband who’s shoved a spanner in the works, isn’t it?’

Kate nodded, taking her cigarettes from her pocket.