For a split second after the sirens had wailed up to full volume, Ray Norman had gone through the emergency procedures in his head, beginning with total lockdown. Then, the full implication of what he had been told hit him. The escaped men were Will Fernley and Johnno Miles. He unlocked his own mobile, the only place on which he had the contact number stored. It was picked up after a single ring.
‘Ray Norman. We have a breakout, two men, one of them Johnno Miles.’
‘Wait a moment please.’ There was a thirty-second pause before he came back. ‘OK, here’s the procedure. Continue with the routine as normal, lockdown, short tannoy announcement, all officers to posts on the unit, all men in the public area, rooms to be vacated and locked temporarily. No one outside the building. Local police are being informed from here as we speak, and will be with you fast. Continue with them as normal, their Chief knows the score, he will inform any others strictly on a need to know. Police units across the county and adjacent will be put on alert. Within the prison, there is no need to know, you are the only contact, talk to no one else. If the media descend, press conference only, statement as per, ensure you use Miles’s legend as his only story. Repeat. Nothing to be said to break his cover. Answer questions briefly, mainly to maintain public confidence. You know what’s going to happen the minute they hear “escaped paedophiles”. We don’t want panic, schools closing, all that. No risk, no danger, police fully deployed blah. You’ve got all of it?’
‘When you catch up with them – and you’re pretty much bound to, I’d have thought, there’s no hiding place round here – then what?’
‘Arrested and taken into custody. We deal with everything. But they won’t be coming back to you.’
The receiver went to tone, the governor slipped the mobile into his inner pocket. Seconds later, he heard the police sirens coming closer and fast from the main road. Ray was listening to them, cursing the day he had agreed to have an undercover cop on the premises, when the first person came banging urgently on his door.