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at the time – in his newspaper column and thought it would mess up the investigation, thereby giving himself more good copy. But Mallory almost killed the girl. He was lucky not to be charged with attempted murder.’
    â€˜I understand Cooper had been watching Carrick, hoping to catch him with a prostitute or drinking heavily.’
    â€˜That’s right. Although, you must appreciate we ordinary bods didn’t get the full story on that. You probably know more about it than I do.’
    This had only just occurred to me. ‘I understand that Cooper and Mallory were already in the frame for some kind of pornography business?’
    â€˜Child pornography,’ Woods said disgustedly. ‘Personally I’d like to see people like that strung up – but please don’t tell anyone I said so.’
    â€˜Where did all this happen? You mentioned a square.’
    â€˜Yes, right here in the city. Beckford Square.’
    â€˜Have you any idea if Mallory still lives there?’
    â€˜No, sorry. Whether he owned the flat or rented it …’ Woods shrugged. ‘He wouldn’t have paid rent while he was inside, though, would he?’
    â€˜And Cooper? Where does, or did, he live?’
    â€˜No idea. But, I can have a look in records for you.’
    â€˜It’s OK, thank you, I can do that myself. Apparently he’s set himself up as some sort of private investigator.’
    â€˜I can just see him in a little back room somewhere digging dirt,’ Woods muttered disgustedly.
    â€˜I suppose you wouldn’t know who this mobster is who’s known to the Met that Cooper’s reputed to be knocking around with in Bath?’
    â€˜You’d need to ask CID about that.’
    â€˜Derek, you’re the eyes and ears of Bath. No wild guesses?’
    He shook his head slowly. ‘Sorry, no, Miss Langley. This is all pretty recent stuff and as far as I know word hasn’t got to local snouts. And I don’t advise you checking up on Cooper on your own, or on Mallory for that matter – he used to be right under Cooper’s thumb and all the worse for it, never mind attacking Mrs Carrick, as she was to be.’
    I thanked him, finished my coffee and took Woods’ advice by deferring going to the last address listed in police records for Cooper, setting off instead to locate Beckford Square.
    It was situated just north of the Royal Crescent and the Circus, the latter of which consists of three crescents that form a circle. Between one of these is Nash Street leading directly to Beckford Square which, belatedly, around eighteen months previously and after years of neglect, was designated a conservation area and scheduled for massive renovation. This has now largely been achieved and West Terrace, which I knew had been semi-derelict and boarded up for a very long time, was in the final stages of being converted into up-market retirement apartments. In the centre of the square was a little garden surrounded by ornate cast-iron railings with a matching gate. These were newly painted and the worn grass and overgrown dusty-looking evergreen shrubs which I seemed to recollect had been within had been replaced with neatly raked gravel, a new bench and a multi-stemmed birch tree.
    I had consulted Records before I left the nick and looked up the Pryce case. She had lived at number 3, South Terrace, one of a row of much smaller houses that had only two storeys. That side of the square looked as though it had been added as an afterthought, when perhaps the original builders had almost run out of money. Here there were no Ionic columns or friezes, no Palladian ornamentation, just double-fronted houses with, even more oddly in such a setting, small front gardens. These, as one might expect in Bath and from what I could see between the parked tradesmen’s vans, were picture-perfect with tiny lawns and jewel-bright flower beds.
    I had not read all the case details but it was