Still out of sight of the man, she beckoned one of the larger male police officers over and whispered some instructions to him. The crowd had grown a little larger while she had been watching and while she might have usually acted on her own, it wasn’t worth the risk with so many others around.

The officer crept forward quietly with Jessica following. They moved into position in the crowd so they were just behind the man and the police officer acted quickly, taking a grip of the man’s wrists and handcuffing him. Jessica stepped around to look into the face of the person she recognised from the CCTV footage she had been poring over. He was undoubtedly the person who had picked up the magazine from the rack in the off-licence a few days previously and Jessica told him he was under arrest.

Moments later as the man was being led to a waiting police van, the noise from the crowd around the shop increased. Jessica turned and saw a woman wearing dark clothing being led out of the door by two officers. She didn’t appear to be hurt and her hood was slumped around her shoulders. Her face was visible but it didn’t belong to anyone Jessica recognised.

The rest of the day was a blur as Jessica lurched from one job to the next. Before going back to the station to talk to the people who had been detained, she persuaded the shopkeeper and the Scene of Crime team to let her watch some of the CCTV footage on site.

The camera system in the off-licence was more sophisticated than the first one and the young man who said his father owned the shop was much better at using it.

He skilfully manoeuvred through the screens, finding the exact piece of footage Jessica knew they would likely need at a later date. Forty minutes before the robbery had taken place, the man who had been arrested outside the shop entered. Much like on the first occasion, he looked around at the floor layout, made a few brief glances towards where the cameras were placed, then left without buying anything.

Jessica had no idea who the two people were but the plot seemed relatively clear. The man would walk in at a time mid-afternoon when they figured the shop would be quiet and familiarise himself with the layout. Then, at some point not long after, his accomplice would enter the store wearing the robe and carrying a large knife. Presumably the man would be waiting somewhere nearby with a car to make their exit.

Before she left, Jessica checked the buildings around the off-licence to see if there were any cameras around. As far as she could tell there weren’t, which was consistent with the first target. The internal recording devices would be easy to avoid given the disguise but it would be much harder to conceal a car waiting outside if there were a camera there.

Back at the station, the two suspects were separated and put in different cells on the basement level. Neither had a legal representative so the process of them both talking separately to the duty solicitor was taking some time. Jessica didn’t really mind as it gave her the opportunity to gather some evidence before the interview. She got new copies of the still-shots of both the man and hooded figure from the first robbery and harassed one of the computer team to send her through the images of the man from just before the second one. They would work on enhancing the pictures at a later time but it gave her a start.

She was pretty sure the couple were copycats and that the coverage in the papers of the woman leaving hands around the centre of the city had given them a convenient cover to commit crimes.

When the solicitor had finished, Jessica interviewed the man first. They found out his name was Jordan Benson and he had a lengthy record for thefts. He was in his thirties but had almost fifty convictions for crimes ranging from shoplifting minor goods not worth much up to street robbery and burglary. The interview had been a mixed affair which started with a stream of ‘no comment’s and ended with the suspect blaming everything on his partner.

According to his version of events his girlfriend, Erica Tomlinson, had planned the whole thing. She had chosen targets for them to rob then sent him in to scout the place out. After that, she would enter in disguise to get the money and they would escape together. Jessica believed the final parts but wasn’t quite so convinced he played as small a part as he claimed. Because of his confession, the still images from the CCTV cameras and the fact they were likely to get fingerprints from the magazine he picked up in the first shop, Jordan was charged with robbery. That charge could be downgraded to conspiracy to rob before he got to court but it would be the Crown Prosecution Service’s ultimate choice. If they felt they could prove he was involved in the planning of the crimes, he would be charged for the more serious offence. If he continued to insist his partner was the one to blame, it would be something their respective legal teams could argue between themselves in court. Jessica didn’t even bother to question him about the hands as it was his girlfriend she was waiting to talk to and he could always be re-interviewed at a later time.

Erica was brought up to the interview room next. She was in her late thirties and had short blonde hair in very tight curls but otherwise seemed very plain except for a series of garish tattoos down her arms. The woman had a criminal record of her own, including a few thefts, but it was all minor compared to Jordan and most of it revolved around drug possession. As soon as they started talking, Jessica realised the woman probably couldn’t spell ‘mastermind’ let alone be one. After giving her name, Erica copied her boyfriend by answering ‘no comment’ to the first few questions.

‘You do know Jordan just told us everything?’ Jessica said. ‘He talked all about how you planned the robberies and sent him in ahead.’

The woman stared back. ‘No he didn’t.’

‘I’m afraid he did. If it wasn’t your idea you should probably say so.’

‘No comment.’

Jessica sighed and reached into an envelope, taking out a series of photographs. She selected the one from the CCTV camera in Piccadilly Gardens of the figure positioning the first hand they had found. ‘Why did you leave this hand?’

The woman picked up the photograph and looked at it before angrily putting it down. ‘It weren’t me.’

Jessica handed her the other photos. ‘What about these hands?’

‘They weren’t me.’

‘It looks like you.’

‘But it weren’t.’

‘Why were you caught robbing from a shop with the exact same outfit then?’

‘No comment.’

Jessica sighed again and leant back in her chair. ‘Do you want to go to prison, Erica?’ The woman said nothing. ‘Right, I’ll assume that’s a “no”. Do you know the starting point for the type of robbery you committed is four years in prison? With some remorse, a confession and the return of the money you might get away with a year, maybe two on a suspended sentence so you stay out. If you’ve done time on remand you might not even get that. The reason I say “might” is because, if you don’t start talking, Jordan’s going to pin all of this on you and that’s not to mention the issue of the hands. We’ve found three so far. Three hands, three people missing, no bodies. That could be three murder charges. That’s life, probably with little chance of parole.’

Jessica knew the outfit on its own wasn’t enough to link the woman to the hands and in their brief initial inquiries they hadn’t managed to connect her to any of the victims as she was a different age and from a different area compared to the three people they had identified.

Erica stared at the table and spoke quietly. ‘I didn’t kill anyone.’

‘Right and I believe that but, if you had nothing to do with it, you need to tell me why you’ve been stealing money while wearing a black robe that looks just like this one.’