Zoe was finishing off a banana, possibly her third, and also quite possibly Catherine’s. She had brought one along for a mid-morning snack but couldn’t remember if she’d taken it out and put it on her desk or left it in her bag. Zoe grazed on fruit all day, making it hard to identify any given item as being part of any specific meal. She was the kind of girl who was so fit it actually made you tired just thinking about what kind of training regime she observed to get that way. A major bonus was that if required, she could run down a fugitive suspect like a Kenyan hunter ran down a gazelle, but the price was that she regarded all fruit left lying around the place – even on someone else’s desk – as windfall.

‘Bordering on the disproportionate,’ Catherine agreed.

‘I heard Cairns was going mental. Pretty embarrassing for us, I suppose. Have to be seen to make amends. We evacuate the place and somebody walks off with, what was it, a hundred and forty grand’s worth of watches?’

‘Rolex Oysters, Ulysse Nardin, Baume and Mercier, Cartier: best of gear, as they say.’

‘Anything on the store CCTV?’

‘Baseball cap, head down at all times. There’s a partial face at one point. Cairns is passing it around. The thief brought the power tool in a sports bag. We’re waiting to get a look at the station footage, but the theory is that he hid in the shop next door during the evac, then nipped out their back door and in through the rear entrance to Coruscate. In and out in seconds. Hid out around the back of the shops after that, or possibly inside one of them, and then slipped away when the punters were allowed back in.’

‘So it was a planned job? He knew what was going to happen?’

‘Looks that way. This is the real reason Cairns has rounded up the cavalry. It didn’t just happen on his op, it happened because of it. This is about Cairns’ source. He said the guy was an Olympic-standard exponent of playing both ends against the middle. Whoever he is, he set this up. He had good intel on the drugs, but he was getting his end. That’s why he threw the word “explosive” into his message.’

‘He knew Cairns would evacuate the place.’

‘Meaning he – or more likely somebody working off his tip – would be in position at the station, ready to take advantage. It puts Cairns in a very awkward lie. This source has proven very valuable, but how much can you let him take the piss? Nobody likes getting played, even as the price for a haul that large.’

‘I heard they’re estimating it could be worth three million.’