His voice dropped a tone or two. “Quietly. Quietly. Up behind . . . Got yer!” He finished with a soft but bloodcurdling little gulp and the scene was as vivid and as unspeakably brutal as if it had happened before them. “It wasn’t so easy though,” he rattled on, unaware of a tenth part of the impression he was creating on that gentle civilised company. “Bad luck really. Or good. Depends which side you were on. A patrol car ran slap into the fight. Money and valuables had passed, so the law was happy. The two were inside and up before the Beak before they knew what had happened to them. Neither was in uniform and there was no traceable sign that either of them was entitled to wear one. They weren’t talking, of course, but their fingerprints were on the files so they didn’t miss anything tha
