‘So Adrian gave you Rick’s personal telephone number as well?’

‘Yes, you’ll call him on that number,’ said Dale. ‘But you should know that Rick is paranoid about police surveillance. He doesn’t like talking business over the phone in case anyone’s listening in. Hence the use of a code word.’

‘What is this code word?’

‘“Furniture”.’

‘Furniture?’ Bailey asked, bemused.

‘You ask about buying the “furniture”. He’ll ask what sort. You say “Victorian oak dining set”. And he’ll know you’re the one.’

‘And that’s it?’ said Bailey.

Dale nodded. ‘When you meet him to discuss the deal, he’ll expect you to be aware of the quantities and the types of guns involved because Adrian will supposedly have told you all about it. Your knowledge of that in itself will demonstrate that you’re the bona-fide buyer that Adrian was talking about. The only thing you’ll need to do is negotiate a price.’

‘It doesn’t mean he won’t be suspicious, of course,’ said Frank. ‘That’s just how he operates. And, of course, without Adrian there to corroborate you, he’ll be extra careful and want to know all about you and how you met Adrian and so on and so forth. But I reckon he’s really keen to shift these guns, and I think, with a bit of luck, you should be able to pull it off.’

Bailey frowned. Something was niggling at her. ‘Adrian got blown up. Did it occur to you that maybe his own family blew him up because they found out he was a snout? And if that’s the case, then surely they’ll be expecting anyone who approaches them via Adrian to be a potential undercover cop? Everyone knows that the police use informants in just this way to infiltrate criminal groups.’

‘That’s a very good point,’ said Frank, ‘And it’s one that we’ve already thought about. It’s very simple really. Rick is extremely suspicious by nature. If you call him and use the code word he gave Adrian, and he thinks you’re a cop because Adrian was an informant, he’ll just hang up on you and that’ll be that. He won’t want to have anything to do with you and he certainly won’t want to meet up with you as that would be way too risky for him, not to mention a complete waste of his time. The operation will be over before it’s even started.’ He paused. ‘However… if he doesn’t hang up on you, then that means in all likelihood that he didn’t know that Adrian was an informant, which means he didn’t blow up Adrian, and it means that he won’t immediately suspect that you’re a cop.’

‘It sounds like a bit of a gamble,’ said Bailey.

‘It is,’ Frank agreed. ‘But it’s the only card we’ve got left to play, and we have to try and play it if we want to stop these guns from hitting the streets. It’s either that or let him sell them to someone who’ll use them to inflict real harm.’