‘What have you got?’

‘All sorts. We’ve had stuff waiting in the freezers for two weeks relating to those student muggings. Is that one of yours?’

‘The guy who shares my office has been following that.’

‘We’ve also got the usual, a few burglaries and whatever comes in this weekend.’

Jessica had switched off for the last few words he said and he had clearly seen her drifting. ‘All right? I’m not boring you, am I?’

‘No, sorry. It’s not that, I just think I’ve had an idea.’

19

Adam had dropped Jessica back at her flat late the night before but she rushed into work the next morning. She went to her office and signed into the computer system to check the phone logs from the past few nights. All emergency calls were automatically catalogued and she scanned through before finding the item she was looking for. She didn’t know for sure there would be a mugging report with the exact details she was after from the past few days but knew there would be something somewhere. She noted down the details and waited for DS Reynolds to arrive.

He looked up as he came into their office, noticing her sitting at her desk. ‘Hey, Jess, how was the weekend?’

‘All right. Look, can I ask you about this phone report from the other day?’

‘Um, yeah, whose is it?’ Reynolds hadn’t even sat down and clearly wondered why she was in such a rush.

Jessica read him the name as he sat down, adding: ‘This is one of yours, isn’t it?’

‘One of many.’

‘Can you talk me through it?’

‘Any reason?’

‘Can you trust me for now?’

‘You tidy up your side of the office and give me back the ten pounds you still owe me and you’ve got a deal,’ he replied with a big grin.

‘How about I think about tidying my side of the office and try to remember to bring your money in?’ Jessica was smiling too.

‘Fine. Obviously you know I’ve been working on the student muggings. The difficulty is that things aren’t very clear at all.’

‘How do you mean?’

‘For instance, we charged a lad last week with making up a complaint. He basically wanted a new phone and said he’d been attacked just to get a claim number for his insurance. But there are also real victims we know of who haven’t come forward – we’ve got some of them on CCTV.’

‘So you’re stuck with some people who have been attacked and won’t come forward but then having your time wasted by others trying it on?’

‘Exactly and that makes it all the harder.’

‘What about the gang initiation thing you had been talking about?’

‘The only reason the muggings started to be linked together was because we arrested someone early on. Poor kid was shit-scared, only about fourteen, and said he’d been put up to it by older lads because he wanted to join their group.’

‘So did you get any of the other gang members?’

‘No chance. It took us long enough to get that out of him, plus he was a youth of course so you can’t push it too far. He wouldn’t give any names and his mother was having none of it.’

‘Have you arrested anyone else?’

‘No. With the conflicting descriptions – or muggers wearing hoods – plus the dodgy CCTV and so on, we don’t really have anything other than a whole host of scared students. It doesn’t help that they go out and get themselves so pissed they can’t walk straight but I guess we’ve all been there.’

‘Speak for yourself.’

Reynolds laughed. ‘You’ve not been that drunk? Who are you trying to kid?’

‘Oh, I’ve been that drunk but I can always walk straight.’

Reynolds laughed again. ‘Why did you want to know then?’

‘I need another favour.’

‘What?’

Jessica took a deep breath. ‘It’s a big one.’

‘I’m not going to like this, am I?’

‘Can you get the fourteen-year-old back in?’

‘You are joking? He pleaded guilty to that other mugging and was released. What do you want me to bring him in for?’

Jessica read the name of the mugging victim she had taken from the phone logs. ‘Bring him in for that.’

‘But there’s no reason for us to think it was anything to do with him.’

‘We know that but he doesn’t. Please, it could help solve two cases.’

Reynolds looked at her. ‘What if it doesn’t? It could totally stuff mine up. He’s a kid too, we’ll have to get his mother in and maybe one of the specialist duty solicitors. It’s a lot to ask when we don’t even think it’s him. I don’t even know why we would suspect him.’

Jessica read the description of the assailant from the police log.

‘That could be anyone,’ Reynolds said.

‘Exactly, anyone. Including some teenager who’s got previous for it.’

‘Are you going to tell me why you want him in so badly?’

‘I don’t just want him in, I want to do the interview.’

‘Come on, Jess . . .’

‘Please.’

‘You’re going to have to tell me. It’s my arse that will be on the line.’

Jessica told him what Adam had said the previous evening that had got her mind whirring then told him how she hoped to solve two cases in one.

Reynolds looked at her when she had finished. ‘It’s risky. He’s still only a kid.’

‘He’s old enough to threaten someone with a knife.’

‘If I didn’t know you better I would have said you had logged into those files before I got into the office and already knew all about our young offender. After that, you went through the phone archives to find a mugging description from a victim deliberately vague enough to bring him in on.’

Jessica smiled at him. ‘I think you know me well enough . . .’

Jessica had a reasonable idea what to expect having read the descriptions but the fourteen-year-old must have grown from the last time he had been in. Now fifteen, he was bigger than plenty of adults she knew. Despite his size, he still shrunk into the interview room’s chair like the scared schoolboy he was.

Reynolds and Jessica had done their best to keep her idea under wraps and had certainly kept it away from the ears of Farraday. There was no way they could have gone ahead without an okay from Cole though. He had listened to Jessica’s theory, put a few doubts in their minds and then said they could do it anyway.

The boy had promptly been arrested and brought to the station with his mother. He was told he had been arrested in connection with the mugging and cautioned. His mum repeated over and over they had no money for a lawyer, so a specially trained duty solicitor had been brought in, as Reynolds had suspected would need to happen.

The mother was fuming with both the police and her son. In the holding room, Jessica had heard her shouting, ‘What have you done now?’ at the boy.

Now in the interview, her displeasure was focused on them. Each time Jessica asked a question, the boy would nervously answer and then his mother would jump in; ‘See, I told you it weren’t him.’ She hadn’t told them anything of the sort but her anger was clear. Jessica had her secret weapon in an envelope on the table in front of them and was biding her time. They had already gone over the formalities of the mugging, asking where he was, who he hung around with and anything else they would usually include. He hadn’t helped himself by not really having an answer for where he was. It had been late on in the evening but, despite his age, he still claimed to be playing football in his local park.

‘Were you playing football with other members of the gang you’re in?’ Jessica asked.

‘I ain’t in no gang.’

‘That’s not what I’ve heard. I read that you robbed your first victim because you wanted to get in with the cool kids.’

‘So?’

‘So did you get in or not?’

He looked sideways at his mother. ‘No.’