We spent the next three hours settled comfortably on the grass as the skies lit up with stars and shearwaters curdled the air with their conversations, only slowly dying away. It was well past midnight by the time we settled LC into her bunk, after a headtorch-guided amble back to the farmhouse, trying not to step on the rabbits.

Daylight, this time with drizzly rain, breakfast yet another communal sharing affair, and then pack everything away for the walk to those steps down to the boat, Maz mock-complaining as LC tried to snatch some more bunny shots for her brother before dashing off on a series of runs, coat spread wide so that she could lean on the wind. Maz was pensive.

“How do we pay them back for this, darling?”

For once, I actually had the answer to that one.

“I asked that question a while ago, love. Of Diane. She said all she needed, all any one of them did, was that we have a good life, lived well. And her boss, Sammy, he simply said that his reward was getting to see victims smile again. Deb’s much the same, just a bit more formal about it. Oddly, I’d say you should talk to our boy about it”

“Why Ish?”

“That book, love. Obs. It’s actually a beautiful concept, and letting him explain it would boost his confidence”

I paused a few seconds, before adding, “I never realised he was so shy”

She cuddled up against me.

“Something mothers are supposed to see more than fathers, love, and I’ve been somewhat lax in my attention to that, for some reason. This trip… I’m doing my best to come back, love, and we have such wonderful friends… It’s almost easy. Then I think, I wonder, how does someone cope who doesn’t have that? We need to do that ob thing with Di’s big boss. Agreed?”

“Agreed. And Carolyn and her bear can be centre”

“No, love. Neil. Let him have a chance. Might not want it, but let him choose”

We said farewell to another island, then, the ride back giving Maz a small flock of birds she called storm petrels, and our son and his new friends were waiting to transfer us from boat to bus to Cardiff, a meal in a café apparently run by one of Deb’s former inmates, and then a relaxed evening in ‘Harry’s’, where our daughter’s presence was excused with the words “Well, she’s allowed in for a meal” and the delivery of a large portion of chips.

I had made a quick call to Diane as we finished our pudding in the café, so was unsurprised when my phone rang in the pub.

“Hiya Sammy. Am assuming Di passed the word”

“She did, butt. When are you away?”

“Tuesday morning, I’m afraid”

“Right… how late can you make it? Your departure?”

“I’d want to be away by noon, just to avoid crap around the M25”

“Can I call you back in a few?”

“Yes, but Maz and I had a chat about this---yeah, of course--- and we thought we should include Neil, as it all ties together”

“Excellent idea which I just happened to have had myself. Oh, and it’s a very local journalist, which will make you laugh. Where’d you eat tonight?”

“Kim’s place”

“That’s actually Ruth’s, but never mind. Journo is Kim’s husband Phil”

“Candice was bloody right about the Borg!”

He turned far more serious in his tone.

“Part of the politics, Mike. Phil’s kosher as a journo, but he’s ours, aye? We are putting out a message, not info, and we need it to say only what we want it to. Way of the world, I’m afraid”

“Understood, Sammy”

“Right… I’m going to ring the Super, but what we could do is take your car into the station yard, down on James Street. That’s the nick with the mini lighthouse in front. Get the thing done, then you can be offski with no delays. Call you in a few, okay?”

I ran everything past our people, including a rather worried Mr Strachan.

“Why me, though?”

Ish did it once again, taking Neil’s hand and making me proud.

“Family, Neil. That’s who you are. And… And we are away in a few days, back home, and I have someone here that could do with looking after now and again, so that’s the sort of reverse ob, okay?”

No longer my boy, he was my man, in so many ways. Still our baby, though.

We left him to explore the city with Clara throughout the Monday, with a much quieter evening at Marlene’s unaccompanied by Deb’s horde, with the exception of Gemma, Kim and their husbands, one of whom, of course, was set to interview us the following morning. He was quickly to the point, with a list of questions already printed and ready for discussion.

“Mike, Maz, I string for a lot of papers, including the Guardian, despite its, um, poor recent record on a topic rather important to us. Deb’s girls, that is”

“I can just about accept the Graun, but who are the others?”

“Metro, Indy, Mirror. Before you ask, no Mail, Torygraph or Express”

He suddenly laughed.

“I heard someone once say that they would even line a cat tray with those papers, cause they’d dirty the tray before the cat could. Anyway, this is how I see it…”

That Tuesday morning was a little fraught, as three of us waited in a loaded car, all Cardiff farewells except one complete.

“Dad? Where’s Ish?”

“He’s saying goodbye to Clara, love”

“Why?”

“Because she lives here, and we have to go home”

“Why doesn’t she come with us?”

Maz chipped in, trying to phrase an almost fully adult situation in words a six year-old could understand.

“Because she has to study here, in her own school, darling. There will be holidays, and you can always do video things, like with Mr Smiley Beard”

“I liked him”

“He hasn’t gone away, darling. He’s waiting for us in Australia, where we live”

“Will Clara come there?”

“We hope so, darling”

“Why are we going there?”

“Because its our home. This is a holiday, and when we are back home Mum and Dad will go ro work again, while you and Ish go to school. Remember him telling you about that?”

“Yes”

“Well---you okay, son?”

“Let’s just get moving, please. Clara… Go, please”

He was silent for a few minutes as I drove, then the words came out, in reluctant clumps.

“Dad? Mum?”

Maz sighed, quicker on the uptake than I ever was.

“Who is she asking, darling?”

“Her Nana Deb, and, well, Steph”

Ah.

“Has she gone to pack, son?”

“If they say yes, Dad”

Maz started to chuckle, then laugh properly.

“All that effort in explaining to your sister, darling! How will she get home?”

“She says she can afford a rail ticket”

“No, darling. I think that we can. Now, send an SMS and remember we need all of our phones on silent for the next bit”

I found the lighthouse as described, and Maz popped in to report at their public desk. Two minutes later, Candice was waving us around the corner to an automatic gate with a sign advising us that there was ‘no access to non-operational police vehicles’, Blondie advising us that as (a) we weren’t any sort of police vehicle and (b) she was blonde, we would be fine.

“Besides, that’s the Super over there at the Custody door, so it’s already well over my pay grade as well as my hair colour”

Bevan Williams proved to be a slightly formal man at first sight, but that was almost certainly down to his very posh uniform, complete with extravagantly braided cap. The formality vanished in a wide grin and a flurry of handshakes, followed by a question to Candice about ‘supplies’.

“Abby’s on that one, sir. Should be back by now”

“Good, good. Coffee’s ready to go, and—Carolyn? What do you like to drink?”

A quick check, once again to her mother; yet another reflex “I can’t ask…”

“Kawan likes Coke with lime”

I could see the puzzlement in his eyes: was she mispronouncing her own name? I pointed at her little passenger, mouthing his name, and saw the penny drop.

“I shall see what we have in the canteen, then, or rather one of my helpers will. Mr and Mrs Rhodes, we have our conference room set up, and young Philip is already ensconced along with Mr Strachan. It is a delight to meet you at last, and a heartfelt thank you for this”

Through the ‘baddy’ door we went, with the help of some visitor passes ‘Bev’ had handed round, up to the first floor and into a very conventional ‘Boardroom’ space, Neil awaiting us and looking slightly worried as Phil talked him through the programme, a cameraman doing stuff to his kit that was probably worrying Neil more than the upcoming event, especially as there were three cameras.

“Neil, mate, just remember to talk at a normal volume and look at me as you speak rather than the camera. Yes, I know, but not today, aye? Hiya, Rhodeses. I’ll show you where to sit…”

Apparently, our single camera chappy would drive all three cameras through a laptop, and would be able to zoom, pan, roll, whatever the terms are on each one.

Speaking of rolls, the ‘supplies’ turned out to be pastries, some of Gemma’s work, along with excellent coffee and two glasses of Coke and lime, which was not what I would have expected from a police canteen. Bevan clearly saw my surprise.

“Supermarket not far from here, so we sent someone over. Personal Services R Us, as Candice said—ah. Ladies, Jonny Boy, Sammy. Name tags are on seats”

In the end, we had four of our family, Di, Candice, Lexie, Neil, Sammy and Jon (I remembered that name just in time), and Phil started his intro.

“This will be raw material, people, not like some interview on the nick steps. If we fluff anything, we can retake, but we still get spontaneity, which sells. Er, you get my drift. You ready to do, Ron?”

“I will slap you one of these days, Phil. Yup. All rolling, all good feed”

“Right. Today I am speaking to Police Superintendent Bevan Williams of Heddlu De Cymru South Wales Police in Cardiff about the work of his Serious Crimes Review Unit…”

There was quite a bit of that, backwards and forwards between Bev and Phil, before the former turned to Neil.

“As one of a couple of examples of my team’s work, Mr Neil Strachan has agreed to join us today. Mr Strachan tragically lost his partner due to abuse and stalking by a man now serving the appropriate custodial sentence for his multiple offences”

Phil did the continuity.

“How did you feel before the Serious Crimes people spoke to you, Neil?”

“Um, like nobody would listen to me. The police just dropped the investigation. Nobody cared about my wife”

“Superintendent?”

“Ah, that was something we had come across already. My team’s first case, and others that arose from it, not only exposed further serious crimes but also revealed linked corruption within two police forces, including this one. I will not tolerate any level of malfeasance, and it was dealt with accordingly; people will remember the subsequent trials of the serial and extremely violent rapist Ashley Aaron Evans. That is where so much of our work comes from”

“Thank you, Superintendent. Detective Sergeant Diane Sutton: how did you feel over the result you achieved in Mr Strachan’s case?”

“Seriously, Philip? Our reaction was disappointment”

“Why so, Diane? Nigel Forbes is now serving a prison sentence for his own crimes”

“Because we could have been there earlier, Philip. If only someone had referred the case to us at the time, well. We weren’t formed back then, but if we had been… We don’t like picking up pieces; we’d rather not have things broken in the first place”

“Neil?”

“I… It’s real now. I can, well, grieve properly rather than just shouting ‘why?’ a lot. And it’s, when you find out you’re not alone, not just you, but also that there are people who care, and that’s what these officers gave me”

“Thank you, Neil. Superintendent, I believe police criminality was also involved in Neil’s case”

“Yes. A number of people who once wore this uniform are now serving their own sentences. As said, we will not tolerate corruption”

“That is a reassuring statement”

“It is intended as such. There is a rider, though, which is that criminality can be like peeling an onion. Each layer exposes another. I am making quite a simple statement about our team, which is that we do not let go”

“Enquiries continue?”

“Most definitely, Philip. In corruption cases, most assuredly. We have not finished in any of the cases mentioned thus far. I will reveal no details, of course, until the appropriate time”

Suddenly, Bevan chuckled, Phil waiting for him to speak.

“I shouldn’t laugh, but we mentioned Ashley Evans earlier”

“The serial rapist?”

“And fraudster, yes. Part of my team is still working through that morass, and I believe they call it ‘the gift that keeps giving’. Due to our standalone status, we are able to work directly with HMRC, and bring a very joined-up approach to fraud investigation”

“Speaking of linked work: Neil. I believe you spoke to your own investigating team about another issue”

“Yes, I did. They were all so lovely. Lexie here---“

Phil pivoted.

“Detective Sergeant Alexandra Doyle. Please continue, Neil”

“I only met Lexie because she was a friend of a friend. I was… I was not in a good place after my wife’s death, and I suspect I was going to do something silly. My friends saw that, and they asked Lexie to talk things over with me, and like I said, she LISTENED. That’s now what you meant, though, is it?”

“No, but that is wonderful to hear. I am thinking of your other friends”

“Yes. They, this team, they asked me for help on that one, and it was from the Foreign Office”

“All linked again, Superintendent. Michael Rhodes and his family are with us today, kindly giving us an insight into their own case. Michael: what happened?”

“Ah, Phil, what happened was a nightmare. My wife Maryam went to Malaysia for a family funeral--- we live in Australia, her family was not supportive—and that was six years ago, without a word from her. Our son here, Ish, and I, we thought we had lost her forever. Lexie and her team, though, they listened, just as Neil says, and Diane there, she can really, really listen, and that’s what she did. Candice there…”

“DC Candice Warren, welcome. Please go on, Mike”

“Candice has been superb in supporting us, and that is something I need to make clear. Superintendent Williams has been very clear on how his team latch onto something and keep worrying at it, but there’s another side of things, and that is remembering that the people they are helping are just that. Candice, Di, Lexie, they all continue to support us”

“Thanks, Mike. Now, DC Jon Philips. Can you tell us a little about how your team works? Any particular strengths?”

“Well, we have a wide range of heritage skills from former jobs, including audit specialists and former firearms officers with forced entry skills at the other end of the scale. We also have Diane, who is a sort of associative expert. She has an amazing talent for seeing connections, as well as spotting the tiniest of details. It was one of her insights that broke this case”

“Diane?”

“Phil, it was a gift of a case. By that, well, we have had some rather unpleasant files dropped on our desks, and in almost all of them, the harm had already been done, and, as Neil here said so eloquently, all we were doing was offering closure”

“It was rather more personal for you, though”

“Yes. I was one of the Evans victims. I came forward, he went down, and that allowed other victims to find the strength to come forward and see justice done. Oh yes…”

She turned her head to look directly into one of the cameras.

“My boss here, Mr Williams, described our ‘gift that keeps on giving’. I believe it isn’t just the fraud element but his other offences. I am sure there will be other victims of his still suffering the terrors and shame of what happened to them. Simply contact us. We will listen. We will act appropriately. After all, he isn’t going anywhere right now. Anonymity will be assured if desired. Just drop us a message here at James Street”

She turned back to Phil, with a smile.

“They’re all personal, Phil, because all the victims are just like us: fellow human beings. They hurt; we do our best to help”

“And Candice: the Rhodes family?”

“Ah, that was classic Diane. She spotted a link we’d all missed, and then the Foreign office people found someone who would listen, to pick up on Neil’s point, and they… Sorry. A second. Unlike what happened with Neil’s wife, the Foreign Office people let us be there for the sort of end credits bit. Six years late, but for once not too late”

“Indeed. Readers and viewers will remember the case of slavery in Indonesia involving an Australian woman and her child. Maryam Rhodes was held in captivity on a drugs farm for six years. She was pregnant when initially kidnapped, but managed to keep her daughter, born into captivity, as safe as she could. Maryam?”

“Thank you, Phil. Can I embarrass Diane now?”

“Most definitely. I am sure she won’t mind”

“Well, my, our, daughter and I, we were being held in a cell, underground, bound, blindfolded and gagged. I knew when the hatch was opened because there was light leaking around the edges of my blindfold. People were threatening to shoot us, and then someone took our daughter from me, and I was terrified, but then they were untying me and taking me up a ladder and… I saw things in stages, and the first was our girl, so I grabbed her. The next was a lot of soldiers pointing guns, and the next, well, it was Di, so I’m seeing her scary face---”

“That was my extremely angry face, Maz”

“It was scary. Then I saw the English words on your vest thing, so I’m looking around, and there’s a family friend from Oz, and just past him my husband here, and that is what this team does. And they are still doing it for us, which is why we are here in Cardiff”

“Thank you, Maryam. How is your family doing now?”

“We are healing, Phil. Friends help, and this team, well, how could they not be friends?”

“How indeed? Inspector Samir Patel, you actually manage the team directly. How would you describe your team’s work?”

“Cryptic, Phil. In one sense we are a parochial team in a minor station, not Paddington Green or similar. We are also a small team. That clearly brings disadvantages, which I will suggest are more perceived than real. As a team, we all know each other’s strengths and trust me, my team’s members were selected on that basis and always will be. We did not start as a group of friends doing a sort of mates’ network, but we certainly became friends. We allocate work based on those strengths, such as Diane’s powers of integration so clearly brought out by DC Philips, but we are also able to crosscheck when necessary. Everyone in our team had an input into this case, for example. I am treading on Superintendent Williams’ toes here, but I do not believe a different set-up would work as well as this one does. Returning to Neil’s sad loss, that was work we ended up doing at Cheshire’s request, with extra offences falling to west Midlands Force, all from work done in one office in this station. I think we have made a fair case for continuing what we do”

That was the cue for Williams to expand on that side, and after a quick shuffle of seats, Phil settled down for the one-to-two interview with Sammy and his boss that was the real purpose of the day: we do work nobody else does, and we do it best, so hands off.

We hugged our farewells before being released from the secure car park, and I paused on the street, waiting silently, just like our son’s phone. Or almost silently, for I cracked first.

“Well?”

“Well what, Dad?”

“Your phone’s on silent, son, but it would still vibrate”

“No, I turned it right off, just in case”

“Then turn it on again”

“Hang on… Right… Oh. It’s…”

He lowered his phone.

“Mum? Dad? Are you sure about this?”

“What’s the message, son?”

“Nana Deb and Steph both said yes. Clara’s waiting in Kim’s place. With a bag”

“Maps app, then, son. How long?”

“Um… says twelve minutes, Dad”

“Tell her we’ll be there in twenty, son, then back onto the map to direct me, okay?”