Kelly put one hand over her eyes and turned towards the car window. She couldn’t sit around at Eden House waiting to see if the injured officer pulled through. Graeme Millar had reported what had happened at Allerdale House, and she and Matt were on their way there behind several patrol cars and two armed response vehicles. Graeme had warned them of the volatility of the old weapon, and they couldn’t be too careful.

She knew that Sebastian could have left by now, either by car or boat. The mystery man was a new one, but he could easily have a playmate from London that they knew nothing about. Their digging had been focused on George, Ravensword and the lab research, rather than the disgruntled disinherited grandson.

‘It happens. You’re not responsible,’ Matt tried to reassure her.

‘Yes I am. I allowed myself to be persuaded that the risk to Tilly was one-dimensional. I underestimated a direct threat.’

Matt looked at his iPad. ‘Colonel Dansford has shot himself at the Montague Club. He’s dead.’

Kelly looked up. It was as much a confession of guilt as anything else.

‘Personal reasons?’ she asked sarcastically.

‘Come on, Kelly. We’ve got work to do. Chin up. We’re almost there. Tooting’s gone off the radar, but we’ll find him. It’ll take a little longer to get an arrest warrant for our senior civil servants. We don’t want any mistakes.’

Kelly knew he was right. It could take weeks to put together a watertight case pointing at senior members of the Home Office and beyond. They didn’t even fully understand yet where the illegal activity began and ended.

Units from Keswick were on standby to support them at Allerdale House, but not before the ARVs arrived. She didn’t want any other casualties. They used blues and twos, and it was exhilarating speeding down the A66 with anticipation burning inside them. The ARV commander would take charge of the initial securing of the property. They intended to clear every room before allowing other personnel inside. Kelly wished at moments like this that she could rush into buildings herself and point a gun at somebody who dared to exist in a twilight world of thuggery, threatening and harming others with impunity.

Cars moved aside for them. Kelly alerted the Derwent Water coastguard and instructed them to clear the lake, sending warnings to all registered boats in the area. Matt liaised with London and received updates from the squad cars approaching the home of Christopher Slater, as well as that of Colonel Dansford’s widow. Descriptions and alerts had been sent to all units across the capital and beyond, as well as airports and motorway patrols with the ability to track number plates. Tooting owned three cars and had a driver who ferried him around in a Mercedes. All four vehicles had been entered into the combined alert.