When his sentence was delivered, Silver threatened Grant, vowing he “would make him pay for what he’d done”—which kept Allison up for a number of nights. She only relaxed when Grant informed her that Prior’s actions had gotten him placed in Wakefield, a prison in West Yorkshire often referred to as the “Monster Mansion” due to the great number of violent inmates incarcerated there.

Grant continued to review the file in the back of a cab, sitting alongside Rachel as they traveled to the precinct. Looking back, Grant didn’t regret his testimony. He honestly believed he had kept a violent man off the London streets.

With the steady influx of investigations on his docket, Grant had forgotten about Silver shortly after that. The scarce free time he had was spent with Allison and Rachel, not looking in the rearview mirror at old cases.

So he had been unaware of the turnaround Silver did up at Wakefield, starting with the family Bible his wife had given him on her one and only prison visit. The final straw for her had been having to return the Fiat Silver had given her, the authorities claiming it had been bought through “ill-gotten gains.” Prior had told her he’d had a “run of good luck at the races,” though she couldn’t remember when he’d last backed a winner. She really loved that car, certainly more than she did Prior—and within weeks had divorced him and run off with the owner of the Fiat dealership she had returned the car to.

Meanwhile, Prior Silver got hooked on scripture and spent every possible moment in his cell memorizing passages. He took to spreading the Good Word, enduring more than his fair share of beatings. It didn’t prevent him from preaching Gospel, especially Mark 1:15, which preached the kingdom of God was at hand and it was time to repent and believe in the word of Jesus.

The result was Silver becoming a model prisoner, and a few years later he was transferred from the “Monster Mansion” to Hatfield, a more lax facility farther south where he had penned the sermons Rachel mentioned. Grant quickly scanned one published as a pamphlet entitled Repent + Believe— where Silver claimed repentance was more than just remorse for one’s previous sins; it was also a redirection of the human will.

The sermon was instrumental to his release two years before. Grant wondered if that “will” had been “redirected” to punishing others for their sins—starting with Thou shalt have no other gods before me in a loo at the British Library.

“It certainly seems to line up,” agreed Frankel.

He had joined the Grants in the basement office. The commander had just condensed the trial and tribulations of Prior Silver for Frankel.

The first thing the detective asked was about Silver’s air ticket.