‘I say we speak to Superintendent Campbell tomorrow. We ask to lead on Mike’s murder, and Evie’s assault. We ask him to pool resources and share what we have across the two cases, this one and the drugs angle.’ He half expected Anderson or Whittaker to object; at the very least, to stake their claim to lead on it. Simmons was one of theirs, after all, but they stayed quiet for now.

‘First thing is to see what they find at the scene. We should have that tomorrow, right?’ He looked at Styles, who nodded confirmation. ‘Maybe that puts one of them in the same room as any of the three victims. In the meantime, we hit them all where it hurts, in the pocket.’

‘How do you mean?’ asked Whittaker, looking puzzled.

‘I mean we get in their faces, make it hard for them to do business.’

‘We can’t do that yet, guv,’ said Anderson, shaking his head. ‘They don’t know we’re on to them. If we start hanging round for no good reason they’re going to suspect and just shut up shop.’

‘You really think they don’t know we’re looking at them?’ Porter asked incredulously. ‘Why kill Carter if they didn’t think he’d crossed them? Why were we on the scene that quickly if we hadn’t already been watching? They aren’t stupid, more’s the pity. Besides, we’d not be investigating trafficking, we’d be looking for a murderer. We’d be looking for a cop killer.’ He paused to let his words sink in. ‘We have every right to be in every one of their buildings, speaking to anyone we damn well please to find who did this. Who mentioned drugs? If we happen to stumble upon something in the course of that then so be it.’

Whittaker chipped in. ‘And in the meantime they’ll shift little or no product, with us sniffing around.’

‘Exactly,’ said Porter. He could feel his pulse quickening as a plan started to form. ‘Styles, first thing in the morning I want you looking at everything Locke owns or has ever owned. I don’t care how low-profile this bastard has been. Nobody can operate for this length of time without making a single mistake; it’s just that no one has been looking in the right place, that’s all.’

Styles nodded. ‘What about our case with Barclay? We putting that on hold for now?’