‘I waited until she’d gone and then slipped out the back way. Terry was waiting outside in the car.’

‘That is Terrence Dalton, in the Peugeot you previously identified?’ Hoskins asked, looking down at the documents.

‘Yeah.’

Gillard clicked the screen off and turned to his audience. ‘Under interrogation Nigel Chivers readily admitted that he and Dalton had planned to abduct Rollason, with the assistance of others they have so far refused to identify. Somehow, they had obtained the address where the offender was going to be living. Chivers had effected an entry to this property on the Sunday two days in advance of Rollason’s release from prison and, as you heard, was waiting upstairs for him to arrive on the morning of his release.’

‘Chivers’ story stacks up,’ Hoskins said. ‘He recalled details of the arrival of the probation officer at Rollason’s address that correspond with her story. Right down to the fact he had a takeaway coffee and left the stirrer and some dregs in Rollason’s kitchen sink. Only somebody who was there would have known that.’

Gillard took up the story. ‘As we know Chivers was at the house all morning, by definition he couldn’t have been involved in the abduction, because we know Rollason never arrived. There is not a single dab of his DNA anywhere in the house. Likewise, Dalton’s story, that he was in the Peugeot in Wexford Road waiting for Chivers, is consistent and is backed up by the timings on ANPR images.’

‘So what happened?’ Rigby asked.

‘As we already guessed, Rollason was abducted by somebody else before he even got to his new home,’ Gillard said.

‘Who?’ Rigby asked. ‘Any ideas, DCS D’Angelo?’

‘I think it was a freelance operation, ma’am,’ D’Angelo said.

‘Our errant cyclist, Mr Jakes?’

Gillard demurred. ‘There are problems with that theory, ma’am, which I’ll come on to.’

Rigby didn’t look happy. ‘I have an urgent meeting, so I have to go now.’ She stood up. ‘I suppose we can say that we were pretty quickly onto it, if nothing else. Okay, Christine? We’ll have a breakout meeting on the PR angle we take. You, Morgan and Gillard in my office at noon. Thank you.’ She stood up and left the room.

The conference call was wrapped up. The next phase of the meeting focused on that morning’s arrest.

‘As many of you will have heard, we detained Michael Jakes near the site of the discovery of the second body. He’s a thirty-four-year-old plasterer, no criminal record but has had some mental health issues. He was a witness to the splash associated with the first body and claims to have discovered the second. His statement is in the folder on your desks.’

‘And a bigger pile of codswallop you will never read,’ Hoskins muttered.