‘What about Blunt?’ Levy asked. ‘Did he badly represent the guy?’

‘Apart from the whole provocation bullshit? No, not at all other than that. But it seems they fell out anyway. Penfold wanted the sentence appealed, argued that the minimum term should have been lower. Blunt refused. Rightly, too; Penfold’s minimum tariff was pretty bloody reasonable. Still, it pissed Penfold off and there were a lot of threats made to Blunt, although over time they stopped. But Penfold definitely held it against him, and I think we can safely assume that Longman got some of the blame for the conviction as well, since he was the one who actually passed the sentence. For my money, the belief that he’d been denied a defence to murder and that he had lost more years of his freedom than he should have – however ridiculous those beliefs might be – would definitely be sufficient motive for a man like Penfold.’

Levy sat back into her chair and considered everything she had just been told. Wisdom Penfold ticked the boxes. He was violent, capable and ruthless. And he clearly had a taste for revenge.

‘And what about prison,’ she finally asked. The last factor that pointed elsewhere. ‘If he was released after fourteen and a half years of a minimum fourteen then he must have behaved himself. That suggests his violent streak might have disappeared.’

‘I did think of that, ma’am,’ Ryan replied, not surprising Levy for a moment. ‘So I made some enquiries. There’s a lot to suggest that he didn’t behave himself at all, actually. When I looked at the prison files I saw an increase in ‘faultless’ injuries to other prisoners at every prison Penfold was sent to. Looks to me like he stayed violent. He was just clever enough – scary enough – that no one spoke. Like I said, fourteen years is plenty of time to get better at covering his tracks.’

‘But isn’t that something the Parole Board would look at?’

‘Only if it’s brought to their attention, ma’am. But if no one’s reporting the violence then what is there to tell them?’

Levy nodded, impressed. Ryan had thought of everything. She had done her job with the diligence Levy knew she would. And she had finally given them a suspect.

Wisdom Penfold.

TWENTY-SEVEN

Steven Hale glanced across the room. Towards Joelle Levy and Sally Ryan. They were working through a number of files. Far fewer than had confronted them yesterday.

Progress, Hale thought. Pity we can’t say the same over here.

The murder of Phillip Longman and the massacre of Leon Ferris and his men had posed a problem. Just like every Major Investigation Team, MIT One often took on two or more cases at a time. It was the nature of the beast. But they were not usually cases like these.

Longman’s murder carried its own political pressures. The murder of a Lord Chief Justice – retired or not – needed fast resolution. Add in the manner of his death and it became a once-in-a-career investigation.