‘I was going to e-mail you later, but this is better still.’

Even several hundred miles away, he could hear the elation in her voice. ‘You sound like you’re on a real high. How was it?’

Her low chuckle was infectious. He could feel the smile spreading across his face. ‘I suppose that depends on your point of view.’

‘Start with your point of view.’

‘Brilliant. There were a couple of moments where I was absolutely bricking it, but I never felt as if it was slipping out of my control. All the work we did together made me feel confident I could handle whatever they threw at me, and I did.’

‘I’m glad,’ he said. ‘So, who didn’t think it was brilliant?’

‘Oh God,’ she groaned. ‘I am numero uno on the Drugs Squad shit list tonight.’

‘Why? What happened?’

Laughter bubbled up in Carol’s voice as she outlined the fiasco to Tony. ‘I know I should be mortified, but I’m too busy being pleased with myself.’

‘I can’t believe they had so little confidence in you,’ Tony said. ‘They should have realized you’re smart enough to spot a surveillance. You’ve set up enough of them over the years. From there, it’s not a big step to working out that you’d come up with some way to evade the take-down. So, what else did they throw at you?’ He settled back in the driving seat and let Carol take him through the day. When she finally ran out of steam, he said, ‘Hey, you should be proud of yourself. One day on the streets and already you’ve stopped thinking like the hunter and begun to think like the prey. I’m impressed.’

‘I couldn’t have done it without you.’

He smiled. ‘You’ve no idea how much of a kick I got from feeling I was back in the game again, however peripherally. My life is so predictable these days, it was great fun to sit down and work with you again. In fact, it was even better than before, because there were no lives at stake this time.’

‘Maybe you should think about getting back into harness,’ Carol said.

Tony sighed. ‘There’s no place for people like me in today’s offender-profiling strategy.’

‘It wouldn’t have to be front line. You could train. Think about it, Tony. If the Home Office don’t want to take a chance, maybe you should think about Europe. All those intelligence officers in Europol need to learn how to profile crimes and criminals, so they can determine what’s connected. There must be a place for someone with your talents,’ Carol said insistently.

‘Yeah, well, we’ll see. So, did they tell you whether you’ve got the job?’