Free The Retribution by Val McDermid

boyfriend was kidnapped or her house blew up or something.’
    ‘I have no idea, Tony. All I know is that she wasn’t there, so in their infinite wisdom the officers sent him off in a taxi to his work placement. I’m told it’s standard operating procedure in cases like this. Don’t forget, the prisoners who get sent on these placements are on a trajectory towards release. It’s in their interests not to mess up.’
    ‘This is the most terrifying news I’ve heard in a long time, you know that? There’s going to be bodies, Piers.’ An involuntary shudder rippled across Tony’s shoulders. ‘How’s the taxi driver? Is he still alive?’
    ‘He has head injuries, but I’m told they’re not life-threatening.’ Lambert sounded dismissive. ‘What concerns me most is that we recapture Vance as swiftly as possible. And that’s where you come in.’
‘Me? I haven’t spoken to Vance since before his first trial. I’ve no idea where his head’s at these days. You’ve got a prison psych who apparently knew him well enough to put him in a Therapeutic Community – talk to her.’ Tony let out a sharp breath of exasperation.
    ‘We will, of course. But I have huge respect for your abilities, Tony. I was very much on the sidelines when you put a stop to Vance all those years ago, but I remember the impact your work had on the Home Office attitude towards profiling. I want to send you the files on Vance and I want you to provide us with as detailed an assessment as possible of what he’s likely to do and where he’s likely to go.’ Lambert had recovered his poise. His request had all the force of insistence without being obvious.
    ‘It’d be guesswork at best.’ When it came to the big beasts of officialdom, Tony knew better than to offer any shred of hope that could be used later as a stick to beat him with.
    ‘Your guesswork is better by far than the considered opinion of most of your colleagues.’
    When all else fails, Tony thought, wheel out the flattery. ‘One thing I will say, even without the benefit of the files … ’
    ‘What’s that?’
    ‘I don’t know where Micky Morgan is these days, but you need to track her down and tell her Vance is on the loose. In Vance’s world view, she’ll still be his wife. It doesn’t matter that it was never a marriage in the first place, or that she had it annulled. As far as he’s concerned, she let him down. He doesn’t like being thwarted.’ Tony stopped pacing and leaned his forehead against the door. ‘As we all found out to our cost the last time. He’s a killer, Piers. Anyone who’s ever crossed him is at serious risk.’
There was a moment’s silence. When Lambert spoke again, there was a gentleness in his voice that Tony had never heard before. ‘Doesn’t that apply to you too, Tony? You and DCI Jordan? You’re the ones who brought him down. You and your team of baby profilers. If you think he’s going after the people he blames for his incarceration, surely you’re at the top of the list?’
    It was a measure of Tony’s lack of narcissism that Lambert’s concern had genuinely not occurred to him. Years of clinical practice had taught him to bury his own vulnerability so deep he’d almost lost sight of it himself. And although he knew plenty about the chinks in Carol Jordan’s armour, he was so accustomed to thinking of her as her own worst enemy that he’d all but forgotten there were other threats out there, threats that could undermine her far more comprehensively than her own weaknesses. ‘I hadn’t thought of that,’ he said now, shaking his head, not wanting to believe himself a possible target. Because once he admitted that, everything he did would be tainted and skewed by the fear of who Vance might destroy next.
    ‘I think you ought to be aware of the possibility,’ Lambert said. ‘I’ll have the files uploaded and send you the codes to access them. As soon as we hear anything from the police in North Yorkshire, I’ll