Three boats had slipped into the lagoon and were moored where they could not be seen from the mainland. Rapidly they filled up and I estimated there were about twenty men to a boat, a strange mixture of soldiers and police, sixty in all. Baines was left behind with his patient and John, who had been keen to stay by his employer’s side. Hanna said, ‘I’ll send a boat back for you. We’ll be making contact with the main gate in about fifteen minutes, then you can have a free run to the hospital. There’ll be an ambulance standing by for you.’

He jumped on board the boat and said to the captain, ‘Is the public address system aboard?’

‘Yes, Superintendent.’

‘Then let’s go.’

As we moved off he said to me, ‘Well, you’re off the hook, Kemp. I doubt if Conyers will worry about you now.’

I frowned. ‘I don’t see it.’

‘This situation is made for him,’ said Hanna. ‘It takes the heat off. There’ll be something else to fill the headlines instead of politics, and it clears up the mystery of Salton’s death very neatly from his point of view. You’ll be built up as the man of the hour, the hero of El Cerco.’

‘Some hero,’ I said. ‘What about you? Do you still have Barstow in the jug?’

‘Yes.’ There was grim humour in his voice as he said, ‘Maybe I’ll be next Commissioner. Maybe I’ll be fired. Who knows?’

The boat slid up to the quay and a crew member jumped ashore with a mooring line. There was no point now worrying about whether we could be seen from the airstrip: there was nothing we could do about it anyway. And even if we lost the element of surprise, sheer numbers would be on our side. Mrs Haslam’s gang could not outgun this military operation.

The men debarked and the soldiers deployed, moving at a dogtrot, their weapons held ready. Hanna stood on the quay and said disparagingly, ‘I command an army and I daren’t use it. Sergeant, the walkie-talkie.’

The radio operator trotted by, heading for the road that led to the airstrip. He looked hump-backed under the load of the field radio. A group of men followed him carrying big trumpet-shaped loudspeakers. Behind us at the estate office, I caught a glimpse of three soldiers manhandling someone out through the doorway. He appeared to have his hands tied behind his back and he was gagged.

Hanna was saying, ‘… That’s it, Inspector. When you hear the bangs, move in and occupy the further perimeter of the airfield. On no account attempt to rush them. Your job is just to pen them in.’

He snapped a switch, handed the walkie-talkie back to his sergeant, and checked his watch. ‘About three minutes,’ he said. ‘Let’s go up to the road.’