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way to find out why, isn’t there?’
    ‘Talk to Dai Young? Seriously, boss? Isn’t that bit, you know, previous?’
    ‘Tell you what, Henry. You check on the system for any other cons who have your bloke’s MO, and if you can’t find any other candidates who look more likely - and you won’t - then we’ll talk to Young. How’s that? By the way, do you know who’s doing the forensics at Mrs. Hood’s house?’
    ‘Sandy Smith. She answered the phone when I called her office to check. She said she was on her way there, and why was I fucking holding her up?’
    ‘OK, so let’s get round there first. How did Sandy sound?’
    ‘Angry.’
    ‘Yes, obviously, but how angry?’
    ‘A bit worse than usual, probably. It’s always quite hard to say with Sandy though, isn’t it?’
    ‘Too right. OK then, Let’s give her half an hour to make a start, then we’ll head off.’
     
    Pepper was re-reading an email from a bloke in accounts when Rex Copeland knocked on the frame of her open door and came in.
    ‘What can I do you for, love?’
    ‘I’ve had a tip, from a new source. Just wanted to run it past you.’
    He looked anxious, and Pepper understood why.
    ‘You’ve written it up?’
    ‘You bet I have. The second I got back.’
    ‘And it’s gone to intelligence for evaluation?’
    ‘Yeah, but calling that lot of half-wits force intelligence is like calling me albino. Something about the nomenclature doesn’t quite fit the observable facts, does it?’
    Pepper laughed.
    ‘Fair enough. Put wood in hole’, she said, ‘and tell me all about it.’
     
    Rex did tell her, and Pepper didn’t interrupt. When her personal mobile rang she sent the call to voice mail without even looking at it.
    ‘So you’re worried about a honey trap, is that it? After what happened down in that London, I suppose?’
    ‘Pretty young black woman picks me out to talk to, Pepper. Come on, what are the chances?’
    ‘You didn’t say she was pretty before.’
    ‘Didn’t I? Well, she is.’
     
    Pepper tried not to smile, and failed. Maybe she hadn’t tried all that hard.
    ‘You asked her why she’d approached you, specifically?’
    ‘Yeah. She said she saw me in a club the other week, and that one of her mates knew my name, and what I do for a job.’
    ‘Did you believe her?’
    ‘It’s possible. I’ve been to the club she said she saw me in, anyway.’
    ‘OK, and how about her story?’
    ‘I don’t know. I haven’t nicked Lenny. Does it all sound likely to you? You’d have to be a right shit to do that to your girlfriend, if what she’s telling me is true.’
    Pepper laughed.
    ‘Likely? That’s Lenny to a T, is that. He’d sell his grandmother’s ashes, and she’s not even dead yet, mind. So, aye, it all sounds perfectly plausible. He’s a nice enough looking lad, I suppose, and he’s always been a bit of a charmer. Harmless too, except for the company he keeps.’
    ‘So he’s not violent?’
    ‘No, but he’s like the lot of them, he knows plenty who are. He’ll know a dozen people who’d put this girl in hospital for fifty quid, or a couple of wraps. Is she living with him, this Kelly lass?’
    ‘Aye, that’s what she says.’
    ‘All right. Look, Rex, I see what you’re worried about. That you’ve been profiled by the bad guys, and now they’re trying to suck you in to something. Well, you can forget about that. We’ll both note this conversation, and we will act on any information received, just as we would with any other tip from a member of the public, OK?’
    ‘All right.’
    ‘So your concerns are noted, Rex. But look on the bright side. We might end up nicking Lenny, and he’s due a decent stretch if he goes away again, and that just has to be a good thing.’
    ‘Even if it does let Dai Young take over Lenny’s turf?’
    ‘Aye, even then. All we can do is to nick all and any of these thieving bastards whenever we get the chance, Rex. We can’t pick and choose. Sometimes I feel like a