The phone call came at eight thirty on the Sunday morning. Gillard was having a rare lie-in, holding a still-sleeping Sam close, his arm around her shoulder, her warm breath against his neck. It had been a bad night for her, with nightmares and a feeling that she was being suffocated. He had sat up with her in the small hours talking it through. In any PTSD recuperation, he’d been told, there would be setbacks. This was one of them.

He reached for his mobile with his free arm and answered softly. ‘Gillard.’

It was DC Hoskins. ‘Sorry to disturb, sir. We’ve had a missing person report this morning. Rather a curious one.’

‘Really?’ He gradually and carefully extricated himself from Sam’s embrace.

‘It’s the probation officer who was in charge of Rollason.’

‘Leticia Mountjoy?’

‘Yes, sir. Her partner Anton St Jeanne reported her missing a few minutes ago. He’s not seen her since yesterday morning. Normally, as you know, we wouldn’t be that concerned within twenty-four hours, but I thought you should know.’

‘Okay. I’m not due in until this afternoon but keep me informed. Try to trace her mobile, car number plate if relevant, that kind of thing. Make it a priority.’

‘I’ve already started.’

Gillard ended the call, sat on the edge of the bed and rubbed his face. Leticia Mountjoy, Anton St Jeanne, Leroy Ceejay. Leroy was a crook, but of a known type. St Jeanne seemed straight despite his entanglement with Ceejay, while he had no reason to believe that Leticia Mountjoy was anything other than a responsible professional. Yet something here was worrying him.

He rang Graham Morgan. The Special Branch detective inspector reacted with horror to the news Gillard gave him.

‘You know her better than I do,’ Gillard said. ‘Any theories?’

‘No. She’s reliable, capable, level-headed. Though there are others with more experience than her, I think she is doing a good job.’

‘We have two killings to solve, both carried out the same way, but only a motive for one of them. Someone wanted Neville Rollason dead. Whoever had the skill to find out which prison he was leaving on July second could only have got that information from a very small number of people. She is one of them. You are another. If it was her, then that creates a motive for getting her out of the way.’

‘That’s plausible except for the timing,’ Morgan replied. ‘If she provided the information, wittingly or unwittingly, and the killer needs her out of the way, why not act before Rollason’s body was discovered?’

‘That’s a good point. But perhaps the opportunity hadn’t arrived. I don’t know. Can I ask you to make enquiries among her colleagues?’

Gillard had no sooner put the phone down than it rang again.