‘This is serious, though. Missing his first probation meeting. And having the phone switched off!’

Morgan laughed. ‘He’s not missed it yet. Look, he is not a stupid bloke, far from it. If he’s already shown up at the house, he’ll be around somewhere. Betting shop, pub, something like that. He’s not going to do anything so serious that we send him back. I guarantee you.’

‘What about vigilantes? I saw a pretty a frightening documentary about them on Channel 4 last night.’

He chuckled. ‘Look, most vigilantes are not the brightest sparks. It would be going some to have got hold of him on the first morning of his release, wouldn’t it? Given that only you and I and a couple of others know which prison he was in, and where he was headed. Wait it out, love. I’m sure he’ll be there.’

But Neil Wright didn’t show. Some time after midday, Leticia phoned Spring Hill and spoke to the governor, a helpful woman who confirmed that, yes, Wright had been let out that morning. He had told the gate staff that he was catching a bus.

Leticia thanked her and hung up. Next she left a message for Verity, who had her own client visit scheduled for today. She next rang the office and was put through to Jill Allsop, who seemed far more concerned about it than Morgan had been.

‘Good grief, Leticia. This is not good.’ A click. The sound of Jill’s office door, then the background noise disappeared.

‘Look, Jill. I don’t see any point in me hanging around here when he is clearly not planning to make the meeting.’

‘Yes of course. I realise that your first inclination may be to report him for breach of licence. I would caution you not to do so immediately. An enormous investment has gone into creating a false identity here and to go official on this would blow it quite quickly. I think I need to make a call to the Home Office for guidance. Anyway, I’ll see you back here as soon as you can make it.’

‘Okay.’

‘One more thing. No one is going to blame you for this, Leticia. It’s not your fault.’

‘Thank you.’ Leticia could not put into words how grateful she was to hear that the departmental boss had her back. Still, whatever the reason, the shit was really going to hit the fan now. Especially if it turned out that he had gone out to commit a crime.

Some poor teenager. She couldn’t bear it.

Gillard didn’t get to hear about it until late that afternoon. The immediate summons from the chief constable, dragging him away from Mr Fang, was a clue that something important had happened. Alison Rigby’s PA raised her eyebrows at the detective’s approach.

‘She’s going ballistic in there, Craig. Tread carefully.’