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think we had any Muslim agents.’
    ‘We’ve a couple,’ said Button, ‘but, frankly, I think they’re a bit delicate for what’s involved. My old colleagues tend to scoop up the best qualified for intelligence analysis and translating, and what’s left aren’t that interested in doing drugs and crime, which are our bread and butter, pretty much.’ Before joining SOCA, Button had been a high-flyer with MI5. ‘Anyway, congratulations are very much in order. We rounded them up and not a shot was fired.’ She smiled. ‘Other than the CO19 officer making a mess of the ceiling. Nice touch that. Edwards is telling everybody that it was you shooting at the cops and that you blasted your way out.’
    ‘Wasn’t quite like that,’ said Shepherd. ‘I didn’t have a gun for a start.’
    ‘It’s expanding with the telling,’ said Button, ‘which is no bad thing. It all adds to the legend.’
    ‘Crompton’s wife and son are okay?’
    ‘They were released an hour after you left the bank, just as they promised.’
    ‘I know we had to let it run its course, but I feel sorry for the boy and his mother.’
    ‘We couldn’t have warned them, Spider,’ said Button. ‘They weren’t in any danger – Edwards never hurts the family. He threatens to, but in the five robberies where he’s kidnapped family members they’ve never been hurt.’
    ‘Yeah, well, there’s a first time for everything.’ He drank some coffee. ‘You’ve told the cops that Crompton had nothing to do with it? I know the way they think, and the first thing they’ll do is put him in the frame. Edwards knew exactly which boxes to go for so he definitely had someone on the inside.’
    Button grinned. ‘Good news on that front,’ she said. ‘We’ve been listening in on his phones, and he made two calls to Sandra Ford, deputy manager at the branch. She’s being questioned as we speak.’
    ‘Excellent,’ he said. ‘At least that puts Crompton in the clear. And you nailed Randall and Simpson?’ They were the two gang members who had pretended to be detectives at the branch.
    ‘All present and accounted for,’ said Button.
    Shepherd stretched out his arms. ‘Excellent,’ he said. ‘So, I’m due for some R and R, aren’t I?’
    ‘Yes, I need to talk to you about that,’ said Button. ‘How comfortable are you with the Ricky Knight legend?’
    ‘He’s not my favourite but, yeah, I’m comfortable with him.’ Shepherd narrowed his eyes. ‘Have you got something in mind?’
    Button reached under the table and pulled out a Louis Vuitton briefcase. She clicked open the locks and slid a manila file across the table. Shepherd opened it. Inside he found a dozen surveillance photographs of five men, mostly taken with a long lens. They were sitting around a swimming-pool with several topless Asian girls.
    ‘Mickey Moore, East End boy made bad, and his crew.’ She tapped a photograph of a big-chested man with receding hair, a cigar in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other. ‘Old-school villain, loves his mother, loyal to his friends, never grasses, pays his debts. He’s been behind at least half a dozen robberies over the past five years, none of which has netted less than a million pounds.’
    She tapped another photograph, of a man lying on a sun-lounger while a girl with waist-length hair appeared to be giving him a manicure. ‘This is Mark Moore, Mickey’s younger brother. He just turned thirty – Mickey’s thirty-eight. Mark followed his brother into the family business but he’s a bit of a loose cannon. Having said that, the Moore brothers have yet to fire their guns in anger.’
    ‘Armed robbery is all about front,’ said Shepherd. ‘You go in hard but the idea is not to shoot unless you really have to. For no other reason than that a fired gun leaves forensics.’
    One by one, Button identified the three other members of the gang – Barry Wilson, Davie Black and Andy Yates. ‘They’re a tight group. They’ve known