Bailey absorbed the details while Frank continued.

‘Although the UK has traditionally had low levels of gun crime, firearms offences have increased significantly in recent years and most of the victims are young – under thirty-five, and often they’re just teenagers. We’re seeing more firearms than ever on the streets of the UK, and that trend, worryingly, is growing. Seizures of guns by the likes of the National Crime Agency have gone up by more than three hundred per cent, but still the weapons are flooding in, and it’s people like Rick who are responsible.

‘Weapons like his ones, which are new and clean, are all the more appealing to criminals because they don’t have any associations with past crimes. He’s got a load of military-grade weaponry in his possession and it could inflict untold damage in the wrong hands. It won’t just be hard-core criminals who’ll be looking to buy these guns, it could also be terrorists.’

Bailey nodded. ‘So you want me to pose as a buyer for these guns and set up Rick for a bust.’

‘That’s right,’ said Dale. ‘After discussing it with me, Adrian agreed to vouch for an undercover police officer who would pose as a buyer for the guns. He went back to Rick, and hinted that he might have found a potential buyer, but at that point he didn’t give Rick a name or anything because we hadn’t yet found a police officer to play the role. Rick turned out to be keen though, wanted to know more, and wanted to hear from this potential buyer. So I went to Frank and we thought about possible undercover candidates to fill this role.’

‘And we came up with your name, Bailey,’ said Frank with a wan smile.

Bailey frowned and shook her head. ‘But Adrian’s dead now. How can he vouch for me?’

‘Well, that’s the thing,’ Frank replied. ‘I was about to approach you for this job just before Christmas, but then Adrian got blown up and we thought the whole thing was off.’

Dale spoke up. ‘But then we realised that this doesn’t change the fact that Rick has still got those guns and he’s still probably looking for a buyer.’

‘And we cannot just sit back and allow this quantity of firearms to hit the streets of the UK,’ said Frank. ‘We knew we had to stop him. So we’ve decided to try and go ahead with it all the same, before he finds another buyer. And that’s why I called you, on Christmas Day.’

‘As far as Rick’s concerned,’ Dale added, ‘this potential buyer that Adrian suggested is still out there somewhere wanting to buy a load of guns. It’s just a case of that person getting in contact with him.’

‘But how will Rick know that I’m the one Adrian suggested?’ asked Bailey.

‘Good question,’ said Dale. ‘Well, Rick provided Adrian with a special code word for this buyer to use in relation to this transaction. When you call Rick, if you use the code word, he’ll know that you’re the buyer that Adrian was going to vouch for and he’ll trust you. Hopefully.’