But for now, Mason and Bevan sipped water and ate sandwiches. ‘So, what happened between you and DS Warr?’ Bevan’s question came out of the blue and Mason instinctively adopted a quizzical expression, as if he didn’t know what she was talking about. ‘You were different when you came back from Oxford,’ Bevan continued. ‘He’d got you on-side. With me, it was the fact that he spoke to me like I was working with him, not for him. He saw what I brought to the table and said that “you’re great at the details, Bevan”. No bullshit. That’s what I like about him. There’s no bullshit.’ Bevan stuffed the last quarter of her sandwich into her mouth, indicating that she had now stopped talking and it was Mason’s turn to speak.

‘We had a difference of opinion.’ Mason swigged from his water bottle to give himself time to choose his words carefully. ‘He was right, I was wrong.’ Then Mason laughed. ‘I know that, because he told me.’ When Mason laughed, deep crow’s feet appeared around his eyes and his pure, unabashed smile turned him from a temporary colleague into a person Bevan felt herself wanting to know so much more about.

*

Barrowman’s mic screeched into life, drawing everyone’s attention in the marquee. From the church hall, Gifford could hear the reverberating echo of his opening words: ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I won’t bore you for long. As most of you will know, the annual charity auction held at the golf club two weeks ago was cut short when Sally and I had to leave unexpectedly. That event raises money for St Barnabas’s special school which Mathew used to attend in Gloucester. But today’s event is not meant as a fundraiser; today is a thank you for always being there for us when we needed you . . . though of course if you choose to pay £20 for a pint of beer, St Barnabas’s will be most grateful. Most importantly, have fun. We’ve had some dark moments of late, so we all deserve a good day.’

*

All five target homes sat within a seven-kilometre radius of Ascott-under-Wychwood train station. And all five homes were under surveillance by teams of covert officers. Jack was part of the team based outside the Yardley house.

At the bottom of their back garden, the Yardleys had two hen houses. These were low, grey buildings, around three metres wide and seven metres long. They had no windows and two doors that led into a fenced-off area of grass, roughly the same size as the building itself; and one half-sized door at the back of the hut, used for egg collection whilst the hens were outside. Each building was home to a couple of dozen hens who were given the freedom to roam during the day and locked in at night to protect them from foxes and other carnivorous wildlife.