“If someone is found guilty of a serious crime, then yes, they do, and often the restorative process can begin during the sentence. In fact, I’d say more than seventy percent of the cases I’ve worked on have happened in the run-up to parole, when victims are approached to find out how they feel about an offender returning to society. The RJ program can work well at that time, if we can get them together. Or it can happen while someone is awaiting trial. It basically depends on when they’re referred to us.”

Graeme’s eyes returned to Andee as she began to ladle gazpacho into her bowl.

“In principle,” she said as she set the ladle down again, “of course I’m interested, but before we start drawing up a list of potential board members—I’ve got about half a dozen names already in mind—I’d like to read some case histories, if you have any.”

Clearly delighted, Dan said, “No problem. I’ve a mountain of stuff you can look at, so I’ll email you the links and passwords as soon as I get home. Oh, and I don’t want you to worry about your interior design business, I know you’re busy with it. This is something that can be made to work around it.”

“Unless there are prison visits involved?”

“Yes, we’d have no say on timings there, but I’m happy to take on those cases as we get started—and further down the line I hope we’ll have a number of practitioners to call on.”

“And who’ll be running your legal practice while you’re doing all this?” Graeme wanted to know.

“I will, for the most part, but having Maxim on board will free up some time for me to start pulling together an impressive board, appointing a chief exec, applying for Ministry of Justice accreditation and funding . . .”

“Wouldn’t you be the chief exec?” Graeme asked.

“Probably, unless we felt someone else might be more suitable.”

“Unlikely,” Andee retorted, “given we have no experience of the service in this area. I’m assuming case referrals will come from the police, lawyers, prison staff, victim support groups . . . ?”

“All of the above, and of course we’ll need to be out there talking to them too, making sure they fully understand the program by the time we’re ready to launch it.”

When he stopped, Andee felt herself drawn to the warmth in his eyes, the depth of the passion he clearly felt for the project. As its leader, he would be inspirational.

“It’s good to hear you’re interested,” he told her, “but you don’t have to give me a final answer now. Especially as you’d likely find yourself back dealing with some of society’s least desirables, who you gave up some time ago . . .”