When Grace returned, she had two bottles of wine and one massive family-size steak and potato pie. She hadn’t had enough money for the beer. I didn’t want her to have any further involvement with this Brendan business and so I told her that the document was just a set of impenetrable accounts. She seemed a little bit disappointed but was easily distracted by the pie and the wine. It turned out to be a very solid pie – thick, crispy shortcrust pastry and a very rich gravy that Grace described as having ‘just the right amount of clout’. Lassoo sat at Grace’s feet and watched intently as every single bite went into her mouth. When Grace had finished her half of the pie, she announced that she needed a lie-down and left with Lassoo in tow. As they walked out of the door Lassoo turned his head back towards me and gave me a look as if to say, ‘Don’t worry, I’ll get my own pie, mate.’

I returned to the document and started reading through some of the examples of corruption again. The first one that caught my eye and simultaneously raised it was a case involving a Mr Derek Moore. Cityside Investigations had been instructed by a detective called Peterson to plant a significant amount of cocaine into the vehicle of Mr Moore, who was subsequently stopped by the police and arrested for possession with intent to supply. It was Brendan himself who had planted the drugs. This was surely my client Wayne’s father. It would seem that Wayne had been telling the truth; his dad was the victim of police intimidation. It was the name Peterson, however, that really rang alarm bells, as it was DI Peterson who picked up the phone when I rang the number on the note left on Brendan’s door. Peterson’s name came up again and again in the document and was also the second name highlighted at the start of it. The note left on Brendan’s door by Peterson had read ‘We need to talk’. This message could open up any number of possibilities, all of which I declined to consider at this moment. Instead, I clicked on one of the video links. Emily’s face jumped out at me. She was sat at a table in some sort of bar talking to a posh-looking bloke and drinking wine. The footage was being filmed by someone seated away from her and to the rear, but there was no mistaking it was Emily. The link to the video included the name Stephen Coldbeck.