‘You’ve got to be fair,’ Morgan said. ‘Each probation officer has dozens of offenders they are responsible for. The Parole Board has taken the view for each offender that they are not a risk to the public, otherwise they would not release them. They are bound to be wrong on some occasions. There’s only so much the probation service can do.’

‘You wouldn’t say that if Rollason had killed your child, sir,’ Hoskins said.

‘I’m sure I wouldn’t,’ Morgan said. ‘But would you prefer it if national offender management policy was based on emotion?’

Hoskins’ shrug indicated that he wouldn’t mind if it was. ‘One thing you can be certain of, sir, is that if he is not found quickly there will be plenty of blame to go around.’

‘Aye, you’re not wrong there,’ Rainy said. ‘A right shitstorm it’ll be.’

‘That’s why we have to find him straight away,’ Gillard said. ‘And get some dabs checked for that door, and inside the house.’

The probation team’s emergency meeting was called for five p.m. sharp. Jill Allsop was already there when Leticia arrived and DI Graham Morgan walked in shortly afterwards. Jill called them all into her office and closed the door.

‘Where’s Verity?’ Jill asked, rolling her eyes.

‘She’s just coming,’ Leticia said. It hadn’t escaped her notice that her boss had spent a considerable time in the ladies’. That was puzzling. If she was pregnant she should be sick in the mornings, not the afternoons. Maybe it was the eating disorder.

Once Verity arrived, the four of them huddled round Jill’s desk. ‘Okay,’ she said, setting out a tape recorder. ‘This meeting is going to go by the book, as if the barristers were already cross-examining us about what happened. The client will be referred to by his assumed name only, is that clear? Leticia, let’s start with you.’

Leticia recounted in detail the journey that morning, Neil Wright’s no-show and the evidence of someone having been there.

‘Graham, do you have anything to add?’

‘Yes. Surrey police have already managed to obtain footage from CCTV, which shows that Wright did not board the bus from outside the prison. The landlord said he hadn’t visited himself, and wasn’t aware of a break-in, but we can’t be certain the offender had anything to do with it. He may never have reached the house.’

‘Someone must have given him a lift,’ Jill said. ‘He must have some friends still on the outside.’

‘Not many, I would have thought, given the crimes he committed,’ Verity said.

‘Well, someone obviously likes him enough to save him a long bus trip,’ Jill said.

Morgan nodded. ‘A taxi would have soaked up most of his discharge grant and would probably have driven right up the lane to the prison. It would be on the CCTV.’