‘For the recording,’ says Naylor, ‘I have handed Mr Gillard and his advocate a copy of an email sent from the email address [email protected]. The text of the email is as follows. We have a range of products to suit a variety of tastes. Prices vary according to requirements. Please supply a phone number and a convenient time for us to call and discuss your needs. Would you like to tell us what products and tastes you’re referring to there, Bobby?’

Bobby’s foot-tapping becomes faster, but his smile grows.

‘No comment,’ he says.

‘Can I ask,’ says the solicitor, running the point of her pen along the sender line of the email, ‘whose is this email address? With who was my client corresponding?’

Naylor turns to Hagen, who raises his chin.

‘Is that relevant?’ he asks.

‘I think you know it is,’ says the solicitor curtly. ‘If this is a private email – and even if it isn’t – I think what we see here is a possible case of entrapment.’

Bobby Gillard grins.

In the canteen, the coffee looks awful. Naylor chooses tea.

Hagen looks dejected, showing no interest in the cherry cake Naylor’s bought him as he over-stirs his grey latte.

‘Don’t worry about it,’ says Naylor. ‘The library computer’s gone to forensics, and I don’t doubt for one second there’s stuff on there Bobby Gillard doesn’t want us to see. When we find it, his feet won’t touch the ground. Go directly to jail, do not pass Go, do not collect two hundred pounds.’

‘I made a rookie error,’ says Hagen. ‘When I got the initial response, I should have ignored it, and sent another from an official account.’

‘And made a possible entrapment official? What difference would that have made? It doesn’t matter, Brad. Admissible or not, it’s flushed Gillard out of the undergrowth. We’ll be able to see where his online travels have taken him, and that’s bound to throw up something new. Really, don’t worry about it.’

‘What if he does a runner, and disappears like Brian Birch?’

‘He hasn’t got the resources, unless he’s had a big win on the horses, and he didn’t look much like a winner to me. The only choice he’s got is to sit at home and wait for the knock on the door.’

Hagen remembers Gillard’s words about the misery of his home life.

‘Maybe it’ll come as a relief to him,’ he says.

In the two weeks since their visit to Wolverhampton, Naylor knows all they’ve done is chase their own tails. The knowledge that Evan Ferrers’s case has stalled again is tough on them all.

‘So you’ve nothing new?’ asks Campbell, at the weekly case review.

‘Apart from Gillard being back inside, no,’ says Naylor. ‘That was a good result.’

‘How have your approaches to the family been taken?’