Clare didn’t respond; she had no intention of complicating matters further by recounting Sheila Foggarty’s involvement in all of this. ‘Believe me, Margaret. If I thought for one moment Crabby would ever pull a stunt like that again I’d be the first person to stop him. But he’s a good man. He cares about this place. He was just …’ She struggled to find the right word. ‘Misguided. The thing is, the moment I told the police, I realised I’d landed Crabby in it.’

‘You’re not thinking straight, Clare. Other than causing some minor criminal damage – which the police really aren’t going to be interested in – what exactly has this new friend of yours done that’s illegal? This site’s not legally protected. Buying from antiquities dealers online might be considered unethical but unfortunately it’s not illegal. And, more to the point, when the police came to see me about our little encounter with White Van Man, I didn’t even know Crabby existed.

‘So unless you or Jo are planning on telling them about his activities, as far as they’re concerned White Van Man and his confederates are entirely responsible for the untoward activity on this site. And should the police ever run them to ground, they have photographs to prove it. And I for one have no intention of disabusing them of the notion.’

‘I see you’ve finally begun to understand the gravity of the situation, Mr Kelly.’

Following the morning’s interview, Damian Kelly had demanded to see a solicitor. It had taken a while to get hold of the duty solicitor. But West had finally tracked her down, and now sitting across the table from Sally alongside Damian Kelly was the all-too-familiar figure of Gemma Bates. Gemma Bates’ appearance inspired little confidence in her clients. Make-up-less and overweight, her thin, obviously dyed brown hair fell lankly about her shoulders. The uninitiated would be forgiven for mistaking her for a world-weary secondary school teacher. But as Sally sat watching her lick the last of the sugar from the doughnut she’d been eating as she strolled into the station, if they did they’d be making a serious mistake.

Gemma Bates was smart, experienced and knew every trick in the book. ‘How long has my client been in custody, DI Treen?’

Sally looked at her watch. ‘Seven hours, Ms Bates. Though it would have been considerably less had you been able to grace us with your presence this morning.’

Gemma Bates ignored the comment and tapped her watch. ‘The clock is ticking, DI Treen.’