'Do you have evidence of this?'

'He didn't deny it,' said Shepherd. 'And he a.s.saulted me.'

'Were you injured?' asked Cooper.

'No. I wasn't injured, but he attacked me. But that's not the reason I'm here. His name isn't really Jorgji Talovic, and he's not a Bosnian. He's Albanian. His real name is Imer Lekstakaj and there are outstanding warrants for rape and murder.'

'What?' said Hollis, looking at Shepherd over the top of his spectacles.

'He used a false ident.i.ty to claim asylum here. He was never a Bosnian refugee. He's a murderer and rapist on the run from the Albanian police.'

'And you know this how?' asked Hollis.

'I know this because it's fact,' said Shepherd. 'So what I need is for you guys to get in touch with the cops in Albania and have him extradited as soon as possible.'

'How do you spell his name?' asked Cooper.

Shepherd slowly spelled out Lekstakaj's name, then gave the policeman the man's date and place of birth. 'Europol has a file on him.'

'And how would you know all this, Mr Shepherd?' asked Cooper.

'Look, can we go off the record?'

Hollis and Cooper looked at each other. Hollis shrugged.

'What is it you want to tell us, Mr Shepherd?' asked Cooper.

'Off the record, right?'

'What exactly do you mean by "off the record" because it means different things to different people?' said Cooper. 'We could hardly let you confess to a murder off the record, could we?'

'I just want to talk without anything getting written down,' said Shepherd. 'Just to let you know where I stand.'

'Okay,' said Cooper. 'What is it you want to tell us?'

'Off the record?'

'Off the record,' said Cooper, clicking his ballpoint home. Hollis frowned and pushed his spectacles higher up his nose.

'I told you I work for SOCA, right?' said Shepherd. 'So I have access to forensics. I ran his DNA by them.'

'You had his DNA a.n.a.lysed without his knowledge?' asked Cooper.

'He spat at me.'

'And you had the saliva a.n.a.lysed by your colleagues?'

'Yes.'

Cooper looked at Hollis. 'And you then ran his DNA through the Europol database?'

'To see if he was who he said he was, yes.'

Cooper grimaced. 'Have you any idea how many laws you broke doing that?'

'I was investigating a crime,' said Shepherd.

'You work for SOCA. I'd say that a dispute between parents is a bit out of your remit,' said Cooper.

'Which is why I wanted this off the record, so I could tip you the wink and let you get on with it. It's got to be a feather in your cap if you arrest an Albanian murderer here in the UK, right?'

'It's more complicated than that, sir,' said Cooper.

Shepherd didn't like the use of the honorific. It wasn't being used as a sign of respect but to put him in his place, a way of showing him that he wasn't part of the system. 'I don't see why,' he said. 'He claimed to be a Bosnian refugee and on the back of that lie was granted British citizenship. A simple DNA test will establish his true ident.i.ty, and he can then be extradited to Albania.'

'First of all, there's no guarantee that he would be sent back to Albania,' said Hollis.

'There's a Europol warrant out for his arrest on rape and murder charges.'

'But he's British. That was one of the first checks we did after we'd interviewed him about the video on the phone. He's a full British citizen, has been for five years now. We tend not to extradite British citizens to places like Albania. There'll be appeals up to the House of Lords and then it'll be on to the European Court of Human Rights. He's married to a Brit and the father of a British child. It'll be in the courts for years and, frankly, I don't think he'll ever be sent back.'

'He lied to get his citizenship,' said Shepherd.

'Unfortunately it's a lot harder to take away British citizenship than it is to get it,' said Hollis, pushing his spectacles higher up his nose again with the middle finger of his right hand. 'There's a whole industry out there geared up to protecting the rights of asylum seekers.'

'But he was never an asylum seeker. He was an Albanian murderer on the run.' Shepherd gritted his teeth and tried to control his mounting anger. Hollis was acting like a social worker, not a policeman. He wanted to shout and bang the table and tell the detectives what idiots they were, but he knew there was nothing to be gained from losing his temper. 'Okay, how about this?' he said quietly. 'Why not contact Europol and ask for details of Imer Lekstakaj? Compare the photograph and fingerprints on their file with Talovic. Then contact the Albanian police and let them start extradition proceedings.'

'I'm not sure that'll help,' said Cooper.

'Why not?'

'Because at some point we'll be asked why we were interested in Lekstakaj. Either at primary disclosure or secondary disclosure the defence is going to be provided with all the evidence we have and that's going to include the fact that you sent off his DNA sample without authorisation.'

'I told you that off the record,' said Shepherd.

'Understood, but that doesn't mean I can forget what you said,' said Cooper. 'At some point we'll be asked what sparked off this investigation and why we suspected that Talovic isn't who he says he is. And the answer to that question is that you took it upon yourself to use SOCA facilities to carry out a personal investigation. And that is obviously going to weaken any case we have.'

'That's ridiculous,' snapped Shepherd.

'Is it?' said Cooper. 'What if a judge decides that you acted unlawfully in taking a DNA sample from Talovic? If that were to happen, everything that followed would be inadmissible in court. And you'd be leaving yourself open to a civil action for compensation. For all we know, you could be the one ending up in the dock trying to explain why you acted the way you did.'

'I didn't take a DNA sample, he spat at me,' said Shepherd. 'He spat at me after he'd threatened to kill my son and rape my au pair. I carried out a basic check on a man who I believe to be a danger to me and my family. You'd have done the same.'

'Actually, sir, I wouldn't,' said Cooper.

There was the honorific again. It was Cooper putting distance between himself and Shepherd.

'What would you have done?'

'When he spat at you? Phoned the police.' Cooper put down his ballpoint pen, folded his arms and looked impa.s.sively at Shepherd.

'What dialled nine-nine-nine?'

'Called us. Called the station.'

'And what would you have done? Rushed around and arrested him for spitting?'

'We would have taken your statement and added it to our report,' said Hollis.

'And what about my dog? He's killed my dog.'

'Do you have any evidence that Mr Talovic poisoned your dog?'

Shepherd felt his pulse race. 'Mr Talovic?' he said. 'Mr? Suddenly he's Mr Talovic. He's an Albanian murderer and you're calling him Mr?' Suddenly he's Mr Talovic. He's an Albanian murderer and you're calling him Mr?'

'Actually, sir, that's racist,' said Cooper.

'What?' said Shepherd.

'Calling him an Albanian murderer. You're using his nationality as a derogatory term and I'm afraid you can't do that.'

'He's Albanian. And a murderer. I was stating a fact.'

'It's down to tone, sir,' said Cooper. 'You have referred to Mr Talovic as an Albanian murderer several times now and that's a racist statement so I must ask you not to speak like that again.'

'Or you'll arrest me?' said Shepherd.

'If you continue to make racist statements, yes,' said Cooper.

Shepherd sat back in his chair and forced himself to smile. He knew there was no point in getting into a confrontation with a man who was clearly more interested in scoring points for political correctness than he was about fighting crime. 'I apologise,' said Shepherd. 'I spoke without thinking. Perhaps you could tell me what the best course of action to take would be. Mr Talovic has threatened me and my family, and while there is no evidence to prove that he killed my dog, I do feel that the fact that it happened so quickly after him threatening my family suggests that he is probably involved. And there is no doubt that he spat at me and threatened me with bodily harm. So where do we go from here?'

Hollis sighed. 'To be honest, sir, if you insist, we can charge Mr Talovic with threatening behaviour and possibly breach of the peace, but as no serious a.s.sault was actually committed he's unlikely to get more than a caution. But there is every likelihood that he will make a counter-allegation against you. And if, for example, he says that you a.s.saulted him or made racist statements, then you will be facing more serious charges than him. Plus you will have to be put in the system. You will be charged, fingerprinted and a DNA sample will be taken, the facts will be presented to the Crown Prosecution Service and it will be up to them who is charged.'

'So you're saying that if I do press charges against him, he could end up with a caution and I could end up in the dock?'

'I'm afraid so, yes,' said Hollis.

'You realise that's crazy?'

Hollis sighed. 'I'm just telling you the way things are, sir. My view on whether it's sensible or not is totally irrelevant. I just want you to understand that we have absolutely no discretion in the matter. We have to follow procedure to the letter. If Mr Talovic makes a counter-allegation against you, we have to treat that with the same degree of seriousness as we take your initial allegation.'

Shepherd nodded slowly. 'Okay,' he said quietly. 'So let's forget about going down that route. Mr Talovic is not who he says he is. He is not a Bosnian refugee, he is a criminal from Albania who is currently wanted by the Albanian police.' He looked across at Cooper. 'And I'm using Albanian there as an adjective rather than as a derogatory racist label.'

Cooper nodded with no indication that he realised Shepherd was being sarcastic.

'So how do we go about bringing Mr Talovic, or Mr Lekstakaj, to their attention?'

'That's not really our problem, sir,' said Cooper. 'We're tasked with solving and preventing crime at a local level, not with the extradition of citizens who may or may not be the subject of investigations overseas.'

Shepherd nodded slowly. 'Terrific,' he said.

Shepherd cursed under his breath as he walked over to his car and pressed the key fob to unlock the doors. He had used all his powers of self-control to prevent himself grabbing the two detectives and banging their heads together. He pulled open the door and heard a voice calling him. 'Mr Shepherd! Hang on.' He turned to see Hollis jogging along the pavement. 'Hang on a minute.'

'You're not going to charge me for having impure thoughts, are you?' asked Shepherd.

Hollis pulled a face as if he had a bad taste in his mouth. 'I'm sorry about what happened back there,' he said. He glanced over his shoulder as if he was worried about being overheard. 'Cooper is a bit... Well, let's just say he's graduate entry and destined for bigger and better things. He wants to make commander by the time he's forty and he talks about one day running the Met.' He took off his spectacles and began polishing them with a handkerchief. 'Thing is, he'll probably end up doing it. He's a box-ticker, knows exactly what boxes to tick to move up, and he never puts a foot wrong. He goes by the book, and won't deviate from it for anything. And that whole PC thing, he means it. When he was in uniform they called him PCPC and behind his back now we call him PCDC. It's not going to have the same ring when he gets promoted, but within a year he'll be a DS for sure.'

'So?' said Shepherd, gently pushing the car door closed.

'So he's a difficult guy to work with,' said Hollis, putting his gla.s.ses back on. 'He pulled me up in an interview last month because I said "nitty gritty". And he did it during a recorded interview so it's on the record.'

Shepherd nodded. 'I get it,' he said.

'You know about "nitty gritty", then? Because I didn't.'

'It's what they used to call the detritus at the bottom of slave ships,' said Shepherd. 'It's now considered offensive to use it with black suspects.'

'Well, you're better informed than I was,' said Hollis. 'We were interviewing two black teenagers about a few street robberies. Nothing major, they'd been stealing mobiles off schoolkids. The sort of thing that in the old days would have been sorted with a clip around the ear and a few harsh words. Nowadays, of course, it's all PACE and solicitors and social-worker reports. I told the lads that we wanted to get down to the "nitty gritty" and before I know it PCDC is lecturing me on racist remarks. The two suspects loved it, of course. It's no wonder they don't respect the police, the way we act.' He used the handkerchief to mop his brow. 'Anyway, long story short, I just wanted to tip you the wink. Cooper is a master at covering his own a.r.s.e and if any file on Talovic, or whatever his name is, goes across his desk, he'll tell all about the DNA test you did. He might even be putting it in the report now for all I know, along with a note that he had to pull you up on your racist remarks.'

'He's an Albanian,' said Shepherd.

Hollis held up his hands. 'I'm not arguing with you, but PCDC will see things his own peculiar way and there's nothing you or I will be able to do to change that. I'm just saying that if you want to do anything about Talovic, I'd recommend that you give our station a body swerve. Try the Border Agency, maybe, and get him on his immigration status. Or, better still, see if you can get your mob on the case. Get a SOCA file started and leave out all the family stuff. Or find some way of getting the Albanians involved directly. Get them to approach the Home Office.'

Shepherd nodded. He could see that the detective was only trying to help. 'Okay, thanks.'

Hollis took out his cigarettes and lit one. He offered the pack to Shepherd but he shook his head. 'I shouldn't smoke either, but it helps the stress,' said Hollis. 'PCDC would report me if he ever saw me having a f.a.g inside.' He chuckled. 'And he'd report me for using the word "f.a.g" as well, probably.'

'Can't be easy,' said Shepherd.

'It's a brave new world, that's for sure,' said Hollis. 'It's certainly not why I signed up to be a cop, but the likes of PCDC relish it. Ducks to water.' He took a long drag on his cigarette.

'What's happening about the boy, Peter?' said Shepherd.

'Gone to ground,' Hollis said. 'Hasn't been at the school since we went around to the house. Father says he's gone somewhere with his mother but can't or won't say where they've gone.'

'So what happens?'

Hollis shrugged. 'We wait. Try again in a week or so. It's not as if we can force the father to give up his son.'

'You've looked for relatives?'

'We ran his surname but didn't get any matches. Of course, now we know why.' He blew smoke up at the sky. 'You didn't say what you did with SOCA.'

'I'm in a low-profile unit,' said Shepherd.

'I'm Hereford born and bred, so I've got a feeling for the guys who are with the Regiment. I hope you don't mind me asking, but I get the feeling you're former SAS, right?'

'You've got a good eye,' said Shepherd.