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download?’
    ‘It is, yes.’
    ‘All three sightings?’
    ‘All seven. We found some more.’ Seeing Cadel wince, Saul apologised. ‘I’m sorry. This must be hard. But we need confirmation. You know Prosper better than anyone. You’ve seen him disguised as other people. We want to be sure we haven’t made a mistake.’
    Cadel gave a nod.
    ‘This isn’t what we agreed to. I realise that.’ Saul was referring to the decision they’d both made, months previously, about Cadel’s role in the ongoing hunt for Prosper English. ‘And I’m not asking you to participate – far from it. You’ve got to stay offline, and keep your head down. All I need is a positive ID. It’s not something that Prosper will ever find out about. I’ll make a verbal report.’
    But would that verbal report find its way into an email? Or a phone call? Cadel didn’t entirely trust the police – not all of them. He felt that they often underestimated the sheer depth of Prosper’s cunning.
    For this reason, Cadel failed to respond immediately. He sat for a moment, turning things over in his mind. Then he looked up at Saul, and their gazes locked.
    ‘This might be some sort of test,’ Cadel said slowly. He was talking about Prosper’s reappearance. ‘Have you thought of that? He might have done this
specifically
to see how I’d react. To see if I’d go after him.’
    Saul frowned.
    ‘I’ve got to be careful.
Really
careful,’ Cadel went on. ‘He might be trying to flush me out, or something.’
    ‘But why?’ Saul couldn’t conceal his anxiety, though he was trying very hard to sound calm. ‘You haven’t so much as googled his name for the last nine months. You’ve been as quiet as a mouse. Haven’t you?’
    ‘Yeah.’ Cadel had been taking no chances. He’d been roundly ignoring Prosper, in the hope that Prosper would extend him the same courtesy.
    ‘Then he must
see
you’re no threat,’ Saul argued. ‘That’s if he’s keeping tabs on you at all, which is debatable.’
    Cadel gave a snort. He’d never debated it. He’d never even doubted it.
    ‘And even if he is running a surveillance operation,’ Saul continued, ‘it’s not as if you’ve given him anything to worry about. In fact that might be why he’s surfaced now. Because he thinks you’re well and truly out of the picture.’
    Cadel didn’t believe this for one minute. Having twice underestimated Cadel – and suffered because of it – Prosper was unlikely to make the same mistake a third time. Unlikely? Hell, the chances were
minimal
. Cadel could offer mathematical proof in support of his opinion; he’d calculated the odds.
    He couldn’t deny, however, that there was always room for error when it came to probability.
    ‘Anything’s possible,’ he conceded. ‘I’ve still got a feeling this has something to do with me, though.’
    ‘Which is why you have to sit tight, and not get involved.’ Saul was firm. ‘I wouldn’t even be asking you for a positive ID if I thought there was any chance of Prosper finding out.’ He paused for a moment, his forehead creasing as he fixed his attention on Cadel’s computer. ‘What do you think? Should we use your laptop? Would it be safe?’
    ‘I’d prefer to use something else,’ said Cadel, who had always been paranoid about the health of his hard drive. ‘You don’t know where that disc might have been.’
    ‘Good point,’ Saul murmured. He then opened the door and ushered Cadel through it; together they made their way downstairs, where they found one of the security guards – Angus –sitting in the old dining room. This dark and narrow space had been converted into an office, which contained a couple of CCTV monitors, a computer, a printer, a fax machine and several telephones. Since most of the equipment on show was either black or grey, instead of white, Cadel preferred the office to any other room in the house.
    Angus also brightened up the decor a little. Not that he was very lively,