‘Craig, I’m very unhappy about this.’ Chief Constable Alison Rigby was on a conference call with Gillard, his boss DCS Brian Dobbs and a senior lawyer for the Crown Prosecution Service, Pauline Wakefield.

‘Detective Chief Inspector Gillard,’ said Wakefield. ‘Although entrapment is no defence in English law, you would give the defence counsel huge ammunition through this course of action.’

‘It is not an offence for anyone to give in to blackmail,’ Gillard said. ‘The offender would not be committing an additional offence, but putting himself in a position where he could be rapidly arrested.’

Wakefield shook her head. ‘Agreed, but one of your officers would be committing a crime. A serving officer extorting cash from a suspect…’

‘Pretending to…’ Dobbs interjected. ‘Any monies supplied would be passed to the Crown.’ Gillard was surprised to find his boss going into bat for him.

‘We’re sure Ray Slater has killed once and may kill again,’ Gillard said. ‘He is a former police officer and a private detective with, we must presume, significant forensic awareness. He won’t be easy to track down, and could be a real danger to witnesses including Crystal Willow, and to our other fugitive Kelvin Arrowsmith. We may be able to protect some witnesses, but as Arrowsmith and his wife have gone into hiding, or have possibly fled, we are not able to do the same for them. We don’t know quite how this all fits together, and if Arrowsmith is killed we may never find out.’

‘That is the most persuasive aspect,’ Rigby said. ‘But is there not some way Slater could be enticed to meet DC Hoskins without creating a legal danger or ammunition for the defence?’

‘The last thing Slater would want to do, even for his brother-in-law, is to meet in person,’ Gillard said. ‘We have his home and his business premises under surveillance. He’s too smart to come back to be nabbed. The only way we can force him to a specific location is if something is being exchanged. Cash is the most obvious.’

‘I’m against it,’ Wakefield said. ‘It would create huge difficulties for the prosecution.’

Gillard looked down at his paperwork. ‘Naturally, I’ve looked up a few previous cases on this. May I draw your attention to the words of Lord Justice Nicholls in 2001 in R vs Loosely, in which he said the gravity of the case and the desire to prevent serious further offences as mitigating what he called “more unorthodox methods of detection”. And we are trying to save at least one life.’

Pauline Wakefield arched an eyebrow. Gillard could see her bristling at the impertinence of a mere detective attempting to tell her how to do her job. It wasn’t the first time he had waded into case discussions armed with quotes culled from previous legal judgements.