I rummaged through my pockets, but there was no card. Maybe I had left it in my flat. I rushed back and checked. There was no card anywhere to be found. He hadn’t given me one, even though he’d said that he would. I went back to Grace’s flat.

‘No, he didn’t give me a card.’

‘Are you sure they were coppers?’

‘Yeah, I mean, they looked like coppers, they talked like coppers, and one of them had very authoritative thighs. It all seemed above board to me.’

‘What were their names?’

‘Wilmott and Cowley from Peckham Police Station.’

‘Make me a cup of tea while I have a sniff around for them on my laptop.’

I did as I was told and when I returned with the tea she looked up from her computer.

‘I think you might be in more trouble than you realize,’ she announced. ‘You need to track down that woman.’

‘Why, what have you found?’

‘I can’t find the names Wilmott or Cowley listed anywhere on the Met Police website. There’s a female officer called Cowley in some administrative role at Wembley, but that’s it.’

‘Well, I don’t suppose they give out the names of all their detectives willy-nilly. There has to be some sort of confidentiality involved…’

‘Maybe, but as far as I can tell neither of them pops up anywhere, not in any court reports, press cuttings, social media… That can’t be right, can it?’

‘To be honest, Grace, I shouldn’t think detectives are encouraged to fuck about on Twitter and the like. They have to keep themselves behind the curtains. People can have grudges against coppers.’

‘Everyone is on social media these days.’

‘Well, apart from me and these two coppers, Grace. Listen, I’ve got to go. I’ll see you when I see you.’

‘I’m going to keep searching for these supposed coppers.’

‘I know you are.’

The moment I got up from my seat, Lassoo jumped onto it and grabbed the shepherd’s pie tray. He jumped onto the floor with it held between his teeth and started to bang it against the floor until a few stray pieces of grey meat fell out. He ate them up then jumped on the sofa where he pointed his left rear leg directly up at the ceiling and licked his lips.

6