For the first time Rogers did not fire back. Instead he turned to Walker.

‘You got anything to say on that, Carol?’

‘It accords with my own information, sir,’ Walker confirmed. ‘The NCA operation was a bust. And they should have known that earlier. If they’d left surveillance on Ireland’s associate – or if they hadn’t lost Penfold – then they’d have realised much sooner what had happened. It would have allowed them to call it and to arrest Penfold much earlier. Without the public fanfare or the loss of life. In my opinion, they’re now using yesterday to cover their own embarrassment.’

Rogers stayed silent, considering her words. Levy met Walker’s eyes as he did so and nodded her thanks. Walker inclined her head in return. A slow, formal tilt that said was just doing her job. Her conclusion had nothing to do with loyalty to her unit.

‘On that information, that’s rather how I read it, too.’ Rogers turned back to Levy. ‘It’s still a shit-storm, though, Joelle. But I won’t have those over-funded bastards casting mud on my unit. We’ll protect you as far as the ferry’s concerned. But that means I want some progress on the Longman case. Before any more bloody lawyers end up crucified.’

‘Sir.’

Levy felt a mix of relief and pressure. The unexpected attack after Penfold’s arrest was going to be defended. But the price was high: greater pressure for progress on Longman’s murder.

Which is firmly back at square one.

‘Which brings us to Edward Burrell.’ Rogers’ attention turned to Hale. ‘You, Steven, took an SO19 team to a heavily populated street in South West London. Once there you proceeded to engage in a pitched gun battle ending in the death of three officers and four civilians – albeit known gang members – and the suspect himself. Do you see a problem with that?’

Hale was not used to direct interrogation. Such questions were usually reserved for Levy as the operational commander. But Rogers knew who really had charge of the Ferris case.

‘Sir, we, erm, we carried out a clean raid. We apprehended Burrell. We apprehended him and his men inside of the building. We had no way of knowing what was waiting for us outside.’

‘A clean raid, Inspector? Do I need to remind you of the cost?’

‘I understand that, sir. I really do. But we had no intelligence at all about the back-up in the building across the street. We didn’t know what we would find in Burrell’s place; we had no knowledge that a drug consignment of any size was going to be there, let alone enough to flood London. So we had no reason to expect that Burrell had taken extra precautions with back-up outside.’

‘Why was there no intelligence? How could you have gone in there so blind? You had Trident officers with you, Inspector. Surely they had some idea?’

‘No one did, sir. Burrell holding that much cocaine? It was unheard of. He just doesn’t operate anywhere near that level. At least he didn’t.’