By four p.m. Rigby had given Gillard permission to reveal to a small special operations group that the person they were looking for was indeed Neville Rollason. The group included DCs Rainy Macintosh and Carl Hoskins, plus the one man who already knew, Special Branch’s Graham Morgan. The group was to report directly to the chief constable and to maintain absolute secrecy about its work, even with family members.

The secret inquiry got off to a slow and discouraging start.

Morgan reported that he had visited the house on Wexford Road. ‘There was no sign of any luggage. The probation officer seems to have rinsed away the dregs and thrown away the coffee stirrer.’

‘Well, that buggers up the chance of any forensics,’ Hoskins muttered.

‘There is something else,’ Morgan said. ‘The back door of the house wasn’t locked. It seems to have been forced at some stage.’

‘Was that known?’ Gillard asked. ‘Did you speak to the landlord?’

‘I left a message for him, but he hasn’t got back to me yet,’ Morgan said. ‘The letting agent didn’t know anything.’

‘Maybe the vigilantes have got him,’ Rainy said.

Morgan shook his head sceptically. ‘I think it’s more likely that Rollason forgot the keys he was given, didn’t realise until he arrived, and just broke in.’

‘He had no known burglary skills,’ Gillard said.

‘Yes, and it shows exactly that,’ Morgan replied. ‘The door was forced.’

‘But having broken in he didn’t hang around,’ Rainy said. ‘Was there anything in there to steal? I dinnae think so.’

‘Well, we know less than nothing, it seems,’ Gillard said. ‘We don’t know how he left Spring Hill except that it wasn’t by bus, we don’t know for certain if it was him that broke into the house, and we don’t know where he is now. There’s not much CCTV in the Wexford Road area, and the nearest ANPR camera is miles away.’

‘But he was given a phone, wasn’t he?’ Rainy asked. ‘We should trace it.’

‘It seems to be switched off. We all took turns trying it,’ Morgan said.

‘So seeing as this is getting increasingly urgent, we might have to go public and blow his cover,’ Gillard said.

Morgan shook his head emphatically. ‘No, no, definitely not. He wouldn’t have wasted this opportunity. He’s not stupid.’

Gillard shrugged. ‘It’ll be Rigby’s decision, and I have a feeling which way it will go.’ Rainy threw her pen down in disgust. ‘I cannae believe what’s happened. How can the probation service have lost their most important client on the same day he left prison?’