With no one else to do it, Gillard ended up manning the phones for the next half-hour, updating returning officers on the failed sting. The hardest calls were from his boss, Radar Dobbs, and Chief Constable Alison Rigby. He felt he was being blamed for Slater’s ingenuity. Well, tough. You do your best, and let the chips land where they must. It was worth a try. Everyone needs a bit of luck.

Then he got some.

A call from security at Gatwick Airport.

They’d made arrests. Not Slater, but Arrowsmith and his wife. Just as they were trying to board a flight for Rome.

It seemed the pandemic had actually done the police some favours. In more normal times the Arrowsmiths might have got away with it. But with holiday travel only just allowed since 4 July, there were more questions, more manual passport checks, and several opportunities for officials to spot that the Arrowsmiths were on the UK Border Force watchlist. As it was, they got as far as the boarding gate, when a sharp-eyed member of staff saw the names on the boarding passes and asked them to stand aside while others were boarding. They looked at each other for a moment, then circled round and tried to slip into the queue further down. They were spotted and detained by two security staff. Francesca Arrowsmith burst into tears; their escape to Italy ruined.

Chapter Twenty-three

It was early on Saturday morning when Gillard was able to get a glimpse of Kelvin Arrowsmith through the one-way glass at Staines Police Station. He had been transferred from Gatwick’s detention unit to the cells during the night, while his wife had been allowed to go home. Arrowsmith looked exhausted, mask dangling by his neck, his arrogant, feline eyes roaming the walls of the interview room, as if somewhere there was a secret escape door if he could just find it. Gillard was joined by DC Shireen Corey Williams for the interview, and by Arrowsmith’s own solicitor, a large woman with librarian-style spectacles on a chain.

The moment Gillard and Shireen entered the interview room, Arrowsmith unleashed a barrage of complaints. ‘Why are you holding me here? I’m just recovering from a kidnap where, as I might remind you, I nearly drowned in sewage. I have had no access to my medication, and I’m getting anxiety attacks.’

Gillard had already been briefed by the Staines duty sergeant on the various demands Arrowsmith had made during the night. Francesca Arrowsmith was supposedly returning by midmorning with the required blood pressure medication, while the sergeant had contacted Gatwick to get the seized luggage released and sent over so that any medication within could be accessed.

‘You’ve already been told that the medication is on its way. I would strongly suggest you calm down in the meantime so you’re less likely to need it.’