‘Of course. In the meantime, you know where to find me.’ She rang off.

Under a stone probably, thought Thomas. He placed the receiver back on the cradle. The couple were out of sight now, probably drudging across the footpath to the top of Long Bank. The first few flakes of snow were settling on the lane. The view from the study of the lane and barn was still familiar and faintly tedious. And in a few hours, the landscape would be unrecognisable.

#

CTOC, St Pancras, London

Skeffington and Campbell were huddled over a screen when Gabriel walked in from lunch.

‘Catching up on Love Island?’ she said.

Campbell spun around to face her. ‘It’s the CCTV from the Sainsbury’s. It’s taken us all day to get hold of it, but we’ve now got footage from the six occasions where Jones’s phone data suggests he was in the car park.’

He’s anxious, thought Gabriel. Skeffington, in contrast, was almost grinning. He sat on the desk, swinging his legs, unable to sit still, watching and waiting for Gabriel’s reaction to whatever they were about to show.

‘He’s definitely making an exchange each time,’ said Campbell. ‘He follows the same routine – he gets there first, parks as far from the CCTV camera as possible and waits for his rendezvous. His customer’s car pulls up in the bay behind him, boot to boot, and the deal is concluded in a couple of minutes. This one is typical. It’s the first visit. And you may recognise his buyer.’

He fast-forwarded the footage.

‘It’s not easy to spot, but there’s Jones,’ he said. He touched the screen, causing a bubble of distortion. A dark car – it was impossible to identify the colour – was parked at the left of the supermarket car park alongside a border of shrubs. The time and date stamp in the bottom left-hand corner showed it was 8.48pm on a Saturday, eleven months earlier. Another vehicle pulled up behind. It was dark – possibly black or grey. The driver and Jones got out of their cars and met by the boots. They spoke briefly, exchanged a package, then returned to their cars. Campbell rewound the video and froze. It was Douglas Glenister.

‘ANPR shows Glenister’s car was in the area at this time,’ said Campbell.

‘Good work, Campbell,’ said Gabriel. ‘So who else was he selling to?’

‘It seems he was happy to sell to pretty much anyone in the market,’ said Skeffington. ‘Turns out he has an ex-wife, two mortgages and ten thousand pounds gambling debts.’ Again, there was something in his voice, something almost mischievous, thought Gabriel.

Campbell clicked on the next file. ‘This is rendezvous number two – a few days later. The VRN of his customer isn’t visible this time. But again, he’s exchanging something. And then this is visit number three, which is more interesting.’

This time, the car visiting Jones turned into the beams of an oncoming car’s headlights. Campbell froze the image. The VRN, or vehicle registration number, was sharp.