‘I spoke to the cop who first arrived on the scene. Bright lad. Should go far. Might be worth giving him a bit of CID experience in this one. He felt the bonnet of the car. It was stone-cold.’

Again McAllister looked at the DI. This time not quizzically, but with amusement.

‘And the name of this bright lad who should go far and who deserves such sudden recognition? I don’t suppose his first name would be David by any chance?’

Taylor grinned. His son had joined the police two years earlier, something of which as a father he was inordinately proud.

‘OK, OK, good work. We’ll see what we can do for the boy. Happy now, you crafty old devil?’

McAllister was inwardly chiding himself. Cold bonnet. He should have thought of that. It seemed that Taylor Junior, like Taylor Senior, had great instincts for the job. It was also the reason why McAllister and the DI had made such a formidable team over the years. The former had an inferential mind. He was adept at understanding the big picture and being able to recognise patterns. He could take a series of apparently unconnected facts and identify the common thread. Although a great believer in diligence and adhering to procedures, many of his successes were down to pure intuition. Taylor on the other hand was meticulous, steady. He would grind away eliminating all possibilities until he was left with what had to be the answer. He might complain about the job, the pay, the hours, the weather, his haemorrhoids, but he let nothing go past him. Put them together and you had the ideal policeman.

‘So, who was he visiting and why? Answer these two questions and we could be well on the way.’

‘Probably too much to hope for that ballistics will be able to identify the gun. I just get the feeling that this guy is too professional to have a gun that’s been used before.’

‘Maybe. We’ll have to wait and see on that one. We’ll start to get some statements in later today. Hopefully that’ll give us something.’

‘I fancy the Gallaghers being behind this. We know that Kevin Boyle has been eating into their drug business. Want me to check with the Drug Squad to see if they can come up with anything?’

‘Yeah. I know it’s easy to look at the Gallaghers. Too easy, maybe. But we must check out everything.’

‘What about Mummy and Daddy Boyle?’

‘I want you to take statements from them after the post-mortem.’

‘Thanks, Grant.’

‘You stopped me getting to Italy. This is your penance, my boy. Right, let’s get down to the mortuary.’

Taylor raised his eyebrows. ‘Yes, I know. My favourite pastime. Let’s just get it done.’