Blake shrugged reasonably. ‘You might like prison. Three square meals a day. A roof over your head.’

‘Of course,’ said Charles, ‘if you tell us exactly what you saw, then we might believe your story about the watch.’

Dave eyed them both resentfully and swallowed nervously.

‘I saw someone,’ he muttered. ‘Next to the car. He was kneeling down.’

Both detectives leaned forward eagerly.

‘You saw a man kneeling down next to the car that got blown up?’ Blake pressed.

Dave nodded.

‘What did he look like?’ asked Charles. ‘Was he white, black, Asian?’

Dave shook his head. ‘I couldn’t see. Honestly. He was in the shadows. He did something to the car. And then he disappeared.’

Blake spoke up. ‘CCTV footage showed that he had some kind of hat pulled down low over his face, which meant that we were unable to make out what he looked like. We were hoping that maybe you got a better look.’

Dave shook his head. ‘I told you. It was dark. I couldn’t see anything. Couldn’t see his face. Nothing.’

The two detectives swapped disappointed glances.

Dave looked up hopefully. ‘Can I have some more biscuits now?’

Dale turned to Bailey with an apologetic shrug.

‘Sorry, Bailey. I hope this wasn’t a waste of your time.’

She turned to him, still unable and still unwilling to make up her mind about quitting the job.

‘That’s okay, Dale. Thanks for thinking of me though.’

13

The next afternoon, still mired in indecision, Bailey was sitting on the sofa in her Stratford flat watching the news, having just switched on the TV.

After only a few minutes, a news item came on reporting the deaths of two young female university students, gunned down in a drive-by shooting in South Tottenham. They’d just emerged from a fast-food restaurant when they’d been caught in a hail of bullets from a passing car. It appeared that they were innocent victims trapped in the crossfire of a turf war between drugs gangs.

Bailey observed, sickened and angry. Both of the girls had promising academic futures ahead of them and now they were dead and their families were devastated. What a pointless waste.

It struck her forcefully there and then that as a policewoman she had a duty to undertake this operation, to stop those guns falling into the hands of ruthless criminals like these who would so callously extinguish the lives of innocent people in their quest for power and profit. Frank was right. They couldn’t allow Rick to get away with selling those firearms.

It was time to make up her mind. And watching this news item had already tipped her decision. She could do this job and still manage to make time for her father. She’d make it work. Somehow.

With her resolve steeled, she picked her undercover phone up off the coffee table and called Rick’s number.

Listening to the dialling tone, she realised that her heart was beating hard in anticipation.

A moment later, a man’s deep voice answered. ‘Yeah?’