The main reason for his popularity was that he was intensely loyal to his men. He demanded 100 per cent effort. Success belonged to the team. But if someone made a mistake, the team would accept responsibility. He did not believe in public admonitions, let alone bollickings. A telling-off would be delivered in private and invariably left the recipient feeling humbled and embarrassed rather than chastised.

When a young officer had contrived to lose an important document in a case, he had been asked to see the DI. When he returned, his equally young colleagues had gleefully examined the front of his trousers to see if there were any bloodstains where his balls had been cut off. There was no evidence of trauma.

‘He told me I had been very careless and would have to do better if I wanted to get on in the job. I had let everyone down but myself most of all. Then he said he wasn’t angry with me, just very disappointed in me.’

The old heads nodded sagely. Typical Taylor. A boot up the arse would have been painful but quickly forgotten. Instead, the young cop had been made to feel six inches tall, clearly didn’t like it, and certainly would not forget it. He would learn. He would do better.

Bob Taylor was straight. If he could not crack a case by sheer hard work, he certainly would not do it by cutting corners. His men knew better than to try. It was widely known that he once suspected a Detective Sergeant of bullying an accused into making a confession. Nothing was said at the time, but the Sergeant did not turn up for duty one morning and shortly thereafter was discovered to be back in uniform, somewhere in the outer limits.

Now Taylor was in a quandary, the like of which he had never known. He sat in the corner of the bar staring into a double whisky. He knew that if he drank it, it could prove to be one too many. He picked up the glass and poured the entire contents down his throat. As the liquid burned its way to his stomach, the prospect of a monumental hangover the following morning was nothing compared to the pain and torment which were now threatening to tear him apart. Loyalty was important to him, perhaps of paramount importance. But of critical importance was loyalty to the law it was his duty to maintain. Being a policeman meant you had duties and responsibilities to the law, to the public, to your colleagues, to the force, but most of all to the rule of law. And yet, he had forgotten something. What about family and family loyalty? And if that clashed with other loyalties, what then? What indeed?