We drove on in silence. Todor now asked Ricky to lower the music. He didn’t looked pleased about doing it – but he did it. At which point Todor nodded off. I kept looking back to make sure that Klara was behind us in the Camry. She never once lost us all that long way east. I kept telling myself that Todor had indeed sussed this all so well as to ensure that the handover went smoothly, though I knew that Amber would be horrified to see that one of Kelleher’s bodyguards was with us. I decided that I would insist on going in first to the trailer, bring Elise outside and outline the situation and how we had little choice but to follow Todor’s plan for Amber. Then Elise would have to go back inside and explain all to that terrified young woman. How would she react to this? Very badly indeed.

Ricky’s eyes were absolutely fixed on the night road in front of him, glancing once or twice back at me with deep stupid menace, just to remind me (and, no doubt, himself) who had the power in the car. Todor stirred awake around an hour later. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes. I could see him trying to figure out where he was.

‘How long was I out for?’ he asked me.

‘A while.’

‘How far to go?’

‘Maybe an hour.’

‘The girls are still behind us?’

I glanced for about the fortieth time out through the rear window, waving toward my daughter – who probably couldn’t see me in the darkness of the empty highway we were both traveling down.

‘They’re still there,’ I said.

‘I want to talk to Amber first when we get there,’ Todor said.

‘That’s not a good idea. She doesn’t know you. She might get hysterical. Let me go in first, try to explain things very slowly, very calmly.’

Todor considered this.

‘I’ll give you two minutes. I want this finished up fast.’

We drove on. I kept obsessively staring out the back window every few minutes. Klara was right there behind me. I kept thinking over and over how I was going to explain to Elise that my daughter and I had walked right into a setup, and how – given the guns trained on us – we were going to have no choice but to let them leave with Amber. I knew already how turning that desperately abused young woman over to her thug of a captor was going to make her frantic. How Todor’s reassurances that no harm would come to her would send Elise’s bullshit meter into that deep red zone where outright lies are registered. And how I so wished I had never let her speak to Klara and get involved in all this madness.

‘You feeling tired?’ Todor asked me.