‘I know you do, Mr Borreson,’ she said.

Outside Borreson’s mansion, Betina and Adidas Man could hear distant sirens, but the surrounding foliage was too high for them to see any accompanying blue lights. Betina instructed Adidas Man to bin the clothes he was wearing and head back to his bike. He asked about letting ‘the woman’ go, but Betina insisted that there was no time. ‘They’re on to us. We need to run. Now. Leave them both for the police to find.’

*

The CCTV officer flicked from camera to camera, following the pre-determined escape route back past Ascott-under-Wychwood train station, via the temporary traffic lights.

Nothing.

Jack shook his head. ‘No, they won’t leave the same way they came in. Not now they know we’re on to them.’ All he could think of was that with every passing second Betina, Alberto and Adidas Man were getting further away. ‘Find me another route out!’ The cameras flicked between shots until – ‘Stop!’ Jack couldn’t believe what he was seeing. Betina’s white Mercedes! ‘Track that car and keep sending the coordinates to my mobile. Have we got a helicopter?’ Gifford looked sheepish and said that it had been diverted to a higher priority case at the last minute. ‘Then contact the tourist helicopter that was using the far field,’ Jack snapped. ‘I need it on the ground by the time I get there!’

Jack ran as if his life depended on it. He was not going to be outsmarted by Betina and Alberto Barro, and whoever the hell Adidas Man turned out to be. He lurched from dizzy to clear-headed and back again as he ran. His skull throbbed beneath the bloodied bandage and his mind raced as fast as his body. How the hell did De Voe’s gang get ahead of the police? Did they know they were being watched or was De Voe just playing the odds? What if Betina had seen Jack in the Cotswolds – not today, but days or even two weeks ago – and then recognised him when he went undercover as Richard Delaware? What if De Voe had always known that Jack was a copper and this fiasco was all his fault?

Up ahead, Jack saw the helicopter circling and turning into the wind before and smoothly descending in a vertical hover, until it danced to a halt on the grass.

*