There was a pause as if the reverend were waiting for divine inspiration on whether Chandler had spoken the truth. The answer arrived. The Lord was unconvinced. ‘You don’t set up stop and searches for just any shoplifter, Sergeant, so I’ll ask again: is this person you seek dangerous? Is he, or she, an escaped convict, perhaps?’

‘No, Reverend,’ said Chandler, calmly, ‘just someone we want to question. But to help find them we need everyone to remain indoors so we can focus on the suspect without distractions.’

The reverend jumped on Chandler’s slip-up.

‘Suspect! Ah, so he is a convict. Or about to be!’

Chandler felt his brain click into crisis management mode, his voice rounding off the edges, seeking to calm the reverend down.

‘Reverend, that’s the term we use. A suspect. If I was to make a call, he’s actually more a person of interest and we are merely checking that he hasn’t taken a ride in someone’s car, or taken one for himself.’

‘I’m not a man who lays down for criminals, Sergeant. He wouldn’t be in my car.’

Chandler was relieved. The subtle change in tone and direction had helped steer the reverend to where Chandler wanted him to go.

‘I know, Reverend, but I’ve instructed my officers to check every car. At this stage we can’t even be sure that he’s still in town. He might be long gone from here making it the State’s problem, but I would like to err on the safe side and search cars just to be sure. I’m sure you don’t have a problem with that.’

The Lord’s representative on earth had no way back from that. There was an almost incoherent mumble in reply, something that sounded like an offer to do everything he could to help. He would ask his congregation at morning Mass – all ten of them, thought Chandler – if they had noticed anything. After thanking him, Chandler hung up.

Still the calls kept coming, people stuck at the checkpoints, ringing in to ask why the hell they weren’t being let into or out of town. By now even Nick had been seconded to help out Mitch’s team, skating sheepishly past Chandler to get in on the action. Chandler was on his own, batting back the complaints of irritated locals while listening to Mitch and his team decide what to do and where to go next.

Suddenly the door to the station slammed open. Two of Mitch’s crew entered and headed straight for Chandler’s office where Mitch had set up camp.

Chandler zoned out the questioning voice on the phone and tried to eavesdrop on what was happening in his office. He picked up nothing but garbled words. Less than a minute later the two exited the station again.

Mitch came to the door as Chandler hung up the call.