They read the article together before Garry turned inside. ‘Is that who you’re after?’ he asked, reaching the end.

‘I suppose so.’

‘“The Casino Kid”,’ Garry said, reading the headline. When Jessica didn’t respond, he asked the question she already knew the answer to. ‘Who would leave a newborn baby outside a casino?’

Jessica thought of her own circumstances, wondering how she might act if her suspicion turned out to be true. ‘Someone who didn’t want to get pregnant in the first place.’

‘I wonder what they called the baby,’ he continued, although Jessica had a pretty good idea.

She stood gingerly, paper in hand, trying not to complain about the ache in her back.

‘Have you got what you need?’ he asked.

‘Yes and I found out one of the things I couldn’t figure out – how he knew who his father was. The place where he was left was enough for him to eventually put two and two together.’

Garry seemed confused but he knew Jessica wouldn’t give him specifics. As she headed for the door, he called one final question after her: ‘Are you going to let him down gently?’

For a moment, Jessica thought he was talking about their killer, but then she remembered there was more than one bloke she had to deal with.

31

Jessica took a deep breath, feeling as nervous as she ever had.

‘Are you all right?’ Cole asked.

Jessica tried to act calmer than she felt. ‘I’m fine.’

She didn’t know exactly why she was so on edge but she suspected it was because of the secret she had told DCI Diamond and what it could mean. She had tried her best to convince herself that it was simply tiredness or illness.

Maybe it was.

‘We’ve got other people who can do this,’ the chief inspector added.

Jessica thought of Adam and hesitated for a moment before responding. ‘I’m fine.’

He didn’t seem convinced, but Cole nodded, turning his attention to Rowlands. ‘And you?’

‘I’m fine,’ Dave said. ‘We go in, tell him “You’re nicked, son”, then come back out and go for a pint. Easy.’

Jessica was hoping it would be that simple, even though the voice in the back of her mind was telling her something would go wrong.

Cole stepped away from them, indicating the van parked across the street. ‘We can hear everything going on. If you need help, just say the word.’

Jessica and Rowlands both nodded.

‘If your guy’s on the front desk, grab him and go. Don’t get the others involved. We’ve got the back covered, we all know the floor plan.’ After one final look, he added: ‘Okay, let’s do it.’

He walked back towards the van as Jessica and Rowlands made for the door of the gentlemen’s club. Dave placed his hand over the hidden microphone under his shirt, gripping it tightly. He nodded towards Jessica, who reluctantly followed his lead by covering the one clipped to her bra.

‘I’m sorry for what I said to you at the school,’ the constable whispered.

‘It’s fine.’

‘Obviously it’s not. You haven’t spoken to me in weeks.’

Jessica released the microphone, letting him know the conversation was over. She clenched her teeth tightly, thinking of the reason she had volunteered to make the arrest. It wasn’t so she could take the credit, simply as she had explained to Cole that she thought he might come quietly if they went in softly. If he didn’t, they could take the harder approach.

‘Did they get what we needed from his flat?’ Rowlands asked, letting go of his own microphone.

‘More than we hoped for.’

‘So you were right?’

Jessica didn’t reply, striding to the front door and pushing it open. Rowlands followed into the club that used to belong to Nicholas Long to see the man they were looking for standing in front of them, stacking glasses behind the newly installed bar.

The constable edged towards the serving hatch to the right.

‘Hello, Scott,’ Jessica said softly but firmly.

He seemed confused but put down the glass. ‘Liam and Nicky are out back,’ he replied, barely acknowledging them.

‘It’s you we wanted to talk to actually.’

Scott stared at her but Jessica could see in his eyes that he knew the game was up. He glanced from one officer to the other, holding his hands out to his side, palms facing towards them.

‘How did you know?’ he asked quietly, eyes flicking between them.

‘We’ve been to your flat.’

Scott spoke gently, as if mindful of alerting anyone else. Jessica wondered how Nicky might take it if he knew the man who killed his father had been working a few metres away from him.

‘Do you want me to come with you?’

‘Yes please.’

Scott began to lower his arms slowly as Rowlands moved closer to the hatch. In a moment that seemed to take both a millisecond and an hour, Jessica knew what was going to happen; the clues had been there all along. Cole had told her the Serious Crime Division had been looking to pin illegal weapon possession on Nicholas but had never managed it.

Liam’s words from days ago raced through her mind and she realised he had been trying to warn her what was going on without deliberately betraying his boss.

‘. . . He has different ideas, dangerous ideas. His dad knew what to leave at home and what to bring here . . .’

Scott reached under the bar quicker than Dave could move and pulled out a sawn-off shotgun, bringing it to eye level to cover the constable. Rowlands stopped moving, holding his hands up in surrender.

Everything happened in slow motion, Scott slowly turning the gun around until it was pointing at her, as Dave spoke clearly: ‘He’s got a gun.’

It was for the benefit of the officers listening outside but Scott’s face screwed up in confusion.

With the weapon facing away from him, Rowlands took a half-step forward but Jessica knew he had misjudged the situation. Before she could say anything, it was too late. Scott swung around, pointed the gun at the constable’s chest, and pulled the trigger.

32

EARLIER THAT DAY

After finding out almost everything she needed, Jessica phoned Cole to tell him what she knew, asking him to set the wheels in motion for a warrant. They only had circumstantial evidence but it would probably be enough. Before that, she had one final person to visit, although she had to be quick.

Liam was stunned as he opened his front door to see Jessica standing there. She had been surprised to find he lived a few streets away from where the disturbances had been nights earlier. A large clean-up had been in force in the days since she had last been to Moss Side and there was now no trace of the burned-out cars.

‘Can I come in?’ Jessica asked as Liam eyed her partly out of suspicion but largely out of confusion.

He didn’t speak for a few moments, instead tilting his head as if he would somehow be able to understand her true motive that way. Eventually, he waved her in before poking his head out of the front door to have a look around. She guessed cooperating with the police wasn’t the most popular of choices in this particular area.

Jessica walked through to a kitchen that was so clean, she automatically assumed someone else lived there. It was only when she asked him if they were alone that he told her he lived by himself. She sat on a stool next to a table in the centre of the room that was so tall her feet couldn’t touch the floor, leaving her uncomfortable and unbalanced.

Liam didn’t bother to sit, pacing from one side of the kitchen to the other. ‘You shouldn’t be here,’ he said.

‘You didn’t have to let me in.’