Vespers on Monday afternoon saw the team once again seated in the office with Rainsford standing at the back, arms folded, leg bent at the knee with his foot against the wall behind like some angular bird.

Anna stood. ‘I suggest we go around the room. I know we’ve all had a busy Monday. I think a quick catch-up would be in order. We’ll start with Ryia and Justin.’

Khosa began. ‘We spent most of the day with Dr Keaton. The exploration of the false drainage pipe revealed a wooden reinforced shaft. Most of the wood is rotten but basically the shaft runs for fourteen feet under the fence where it then becomes vertical. We’ve had good cooperation from Ryegrove and set up a thirty-square-yard perimeter around the area inside the fence where the shaft emerges. The opening is covered by a metal sheet and then six inches of dirt and leaf mould. No one’s used it for years. Keaton thinks a simple covering of leaves would have camouflaged it and made it easy for opening up.’

‘A quick escape route from Ryegrove,’ Anna said.

‘I wonder what they called it – Tom, Dick or Harry?’ Dawes said.

Everyone turned to him. He returned their stares with incredulity. ‘The Great Escape? The World War II movie with Steve McQueen bouncing the baseball against the wall in solitary? It’s what they named the tunnels the POWs dug.’

The vacant stares he received made him shake his head. ‘Bloody hell. I must be getting old. My dad made me watch that sodding film every Easter bank holiday for ten years. It’s a classic.’

At the back Rainsford snorted. Anna decided to forgive Dawes the interruption then and there. Anyone who could make Rainsford laugh deserved a medal.

‘So, Keaton doesn’t think it’s new?’ Anna said.

‘No,’ Holder replied. ‘The weathering on the stones is the same as all the others in that reinforced bank. He reckons it was put in at the time of construction.’

‘It might explain the incursions on to the university site,’ Dawes said. ‘The question is who was getting out and why?’

‘We must assume it involves Krastev,’ Anna said. ‘He was working on the fence construction. I can’t believe that’s a coincidence. Sergeant Dawes is right. If Krastev dug that tunnel, who was he helping to get out?’

‘Norcott?’ Dawes said.

Quickly, Anna filled the others in on how their interviews had gone.

‘But did Norcott know Krastev? That’s what I’d like to know,’ Holder said as she finished.

‘Exactly what we need to find out. The more we learn about Ryegrove, the more I see Krastev’s claw marks all over Alison Johnson’s death. The real question is who else’s? We know all about Krastev’s link to Shaw and that he was up to his neck in Black Squid deaths as a facilitator. The fact that he was working at Ryegrove brings the Black Squid into the frame with certainty. But he would not have been acting alone. Breaching Ryegrove’s security was a big risk. We need to establish a link between Krastev and Norcott one way or the other. Because if it isn’t Norcott, then who?’

Her team waited for her to give directions. She knew what she wanted them to do. They were still fishing and there were lots of lines to reel in. She also knew her role was to go after the big killer carp lurking in the depths.

‘Our priority for now,’ Anna said, ‘is to find Norcott and bring him in for questioning. But we can’t take anything for granted. Ryia and Trisha, I need you to keep looking at Krastev. Find out why he was working there and what links he had to anyone at Ryegrove, or links to any of our victims. Keep an open mind.’

Khosa and Trisha both nodded.

‘Justin, I want you with Phil. Find Norcott. He hasn’t actually done anything wrong so we can’t go in all guns blazing, but his was a conditional discharge, so it shouldn’t be difficult…’ Anna tailed off, seeing the sheepish look on Holder’s face.

‘We’re already on it, ma’am. Sarge thought you might want this. I’ve done a bit of digging but it doesn’t look good. Norcott was discharged to Kingmere House, a supported living placement off the Gloucester Road. His conditions of discharge were regular supervision by a psychiatrist and a social worker. He moved out of Kingmere into his own place after nine months with supervision.’

‘With what?’ asked Khosa. ‘I mean, where did he get money?’

‘Section 37 patients get their allowance in hospital,’ Dawes said. ‘After a lot of years, it builds up.’

‘But then,’ Holder continued, ‘he transferred out of the area. He said he was going back to his mother’s place in Wales.’

‘And?’

‘And when I asked about the paperwork, it all went a bit quiet.’

Dawes shook his head. ‘Quiet is an understatement. The probation service’s national Mental Health Casework Section have Norcott on their list. They’re the ones who have an overview of offenders like him. Local key workers report to them. They knew that Norcott moved. They knew where he’d gone but hadn’t heard from the local community health team down there in the sticks. They were apologetic but admitted they had eight vacancies in their casework team in London.’

Holder added the final flourish. ‘I’ve rung the local team in Wales, ma’am. They deny ever having been contacted. They didn’t know anything about Norcott coming back to their patch.’

‘So, no one actually knows where he is?’ Khosa said, eyes wide with shock.

Dawes threw up his hands.

Anna sensed what they were all thinking. They’d all read headlines about released patients who’d gone on to reoffend, sometimes with homicidal outcomes, only to hear about hard-pressed services failing to provide appropriate care plans, or treatment, or monitoring.

‘What do you suggest?’ Anna asked.

‘We go down to his mother’s place in Wales. Take a look,’ Dawes said, his lips tight.

Anna nodded. ‘OK. And I need to chase up Shaw. I think he’s holding something back. He’s promised to let me have what he knows about Krastev’s link to his daughter’s death.’ She didn’t add If I keep him in the loop, because she knew what Dawes would say.

He said it anyway.

‘He’s just stringing you along, ma’am, you know that.’

‘Maybe. But I’ll take what I can get from Shaw. He’s proved very useful in the past. Besides, Farlow told us Colin Norcott, before his incarceration, was a computer geek and I hardly need to tell you the Black Squid challenge is still goading kids into suicide. Quite apart from finding out who killed and decapitated Jamie Carson, and who probably killed Alison Johnson too, I would very much like to put a permanent spoke in this Black Squid’s wheel. And no one knows more about them than Shaw.’