Gillard was still fuming about Anderson when he arrived at Gatwick Airport. He drove to the secure police compound, having to show his credentials numerous times at various checkpoints. Leaving the car by a collection of anonymous Portakabins, normally used for abusive drunkards plucked from holiday flights, he went into the reception area, where the desk sergeant led him through to the correct interview room and unlocked the door. Ray Slater, arms folded, looked every bit the disappointed holidaymaker. He wore a short-sleeved flowered shirt, blue shorts, and below his hairy legs, a pair of canvas shoes without socks. The female duty solicitor sitting with him looked dressed for a funeral, in a black trouser suit. As far as Gillard was concerned she had the mood right.

‘Did you enjoy your brief holiday?’ Gillard said as he arranged his papers, and prepped the tape.

Slater gave a sarcastic smile through his two-day growth of beard.

Gillard cautioned him, then said: ‘Mr Slater, we have in our possession the handgun which ballistic tests show was used to kill Ozzy Blanchard. We have CCTV evidence of you near the scene of the crime at Chieveley Services at the time of the killing, and we have witness statements too. We also have records of telephone conversations of you admitting to an undercover officer…’

‘Undercover, my arse. Carl Hoskins set me up. It was entrapment. For weeks he had been feeding me information so that I could do my job, and then he stabs me in the back. My own brother-in-law.’

‘DC Hoskins came to me and volunteered his relationship to you and the fact that you had been asking him for information. He was also instrumental in tracing your vehicle to Chieveley Services, and without him we would have struggled to catch you.’

Gillard knew Slater would try to implicate Hoskins, which offered the best chance of undermining the prosecution. However, he himself had checked Hoskins’ access to records on the various police databases, and there was no evidence of rule breaking. Hoskins hadn’t looked at anything that would not have been part of the inquiry he was working on. Gillard suspected that Hoskins had in fact fed Slater some information, but was secretly relieved to discover he couldn’t prove it.

‘You’re fitting me up,’ Slater said.

‘Really? The serial number shows the Browning automatic used to kill Blanchard went missing from a Royal Marines quartermaster’s depot in Portsmouth in 1984, when coincidentally you happened to be serving in that unit.’

‘That’s bollocks.’