With a sickening jolt of horror, she suddenly remembered that her warrant card was still in there. She’d been meaning to put it in the secret compartment but she’d forgotten all about it.

‘Looking for any particular flavour?’ she called, attempting to keep the concern out of her voice.

‘I like the red ones,’ he said. ‘But there don’t appear to be any in here.’

‘The fudge ones? There’s none left. I ate them all. They’re my favourite ones too.’

He looked disappointed and ceased his rummaging. She breathed a sigh of relief.

But now Stephen was eyeing the bowl of Quality Street suspiciously. He must have picked up on something in her tone, some tinge of panic she hadn’t quite been able to hide.

Shit. Was this it?

‘Okay. Let’s go,’ said Rick, striding over to the doorway.

Archie pushed the kitchen knife back into the knife block, jumped off the stool and went to join them.

Rick turned to look at Bailey one last time. ‘Thank you for your hospitality. As I said before, we’ll be in touch.’

Stephen was frowning, looking at Bailey, then at the Quality Street, then back at Bailey again, like he couldn’t quite work out what the significance was.

Bailey swore under her breath. She’d made too much of a deal about the chocolates. Stephen started to glide towards the bowl of Quality Street, his eyes narrowing in focus. Him and his bloody attention to detail.

‘Yeah, sure, I’ll talk to you soon,’ replied Bailey, eyeing Stephen with increasing consternation.

‘Get moving, Steve,’ said Rick. ‘We’re leaving. Chop chop!’

Stephen unwillingly pulled himself away from the Quality Street, shot Bailey a final scowl and then followed Rick and the others out of the apartment.

Bailey stood there for a few moments, holding her breath. She listened to the front door slam shut, listened to their voices receding down the corridor. Her heart rate gradually began to slow and the flow of adrenaline began to subside.

Berating herself seriously for her near-fatal oversight, she crossed over to the window, which was still open, and peered down at the street ten floors below, aware once more of just how dangerously high up she was here. She waited for them to emerge from the apartment block, which they did presently, and she felt a heavy sense of relief as she observed them swagger away down the road.

Only after she was completely certain that they’d gone for good did she close the window and set about scouring the flat for any listening devices or miniature cameras they might have planted. It took a while to turn the place upside down, but when it came to an organisation as lethal as the Molloys, she wasn’t taking any chances.

Once she’d established with some confidence that the place was clean, she finally went over to the sideboard, thrust her hand into the bowl of Quality Street and retrieved her warrant card. Marching into the bathroom, she pulled the cabinet away from the wall and secreted the warrant card in the hidden cavity.