Did she get it? What was it about? It suddenly seemed very important, vital, that she get the right answer. Think. She tried to muster her police training, to listen – where were they? Was there anything to give her a clue – but all she could hear was Lennie’s desperate sobbing. Muffled now; he – no, someone else: he hadn’t had time, she hadn’t heard it – had gagged her. ‘Lennie!’ she shouted.

‘Come on,’ he said, encouraging.

‘Shannon,’ she managed.

‘That’s right.’ He sounded pleased: she’d done well. ‘Your mate took something of mine so I’m taking something in return: this pretty girl. That’s fair, isn’t it?’

‘What do you want?’ Her voice shook.

‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘I just told you: we’re square.’

‘Lennie!’ she shouted. ‘Lennie!’

They were gone.

She pulled over, bumping the car up onto the kerb. She opened the door and was sick onto the tarmac. That was how she’d first discovered she was pregnant, the morning sickness that had come out of nowhere. Lennie. When her hand reached for her mobile, she saw it as if it belonged to someone else. Useless fingers. Recent calls. The number she was looking for.

Again, thank god, she answered almost at once. ‘DS Thomas.’

‘It’s Robin Lyons. Is he there?’

Seconds but it seemed like a long, long time. ‘Robin?’

‘Samir? Staverton’s got Lennie.’

Chapter Twenty-seven

‘But she grew up surrounded by police – if there’s one person who would never, ever go with a stranger, it’s her. And she would have rung to check if anyone she didn’t know told her there was a change of plan, that they’d been sent by me or Mum.’ Robin looked at Christine across the table. Her eyes were huge, her face white. ‘He must have forced her – but how, outside school? Teachers, parents, literally a thousand other kids – there’s a freaking lollipop lady.’

‘Because it was so busy? And it was only her second week, right?’ DS Thomas frowned. ‘So she hasn’t got a gang yet, a group of friends who’d look out for her?’

Robin saw Lennie as she had on Friday, head down, crossing the playground alone.

‘She didn’t know anyone at the school before she started?’

‘No. I haven’t lived here for a long time. She never has.’

‘He’s done this because you’ve been investigating Corinna,’ said Samir. ‘I think we can assume that much. He knows you’re the reason we’re looking for him and, almost certainly, he knows that because someone you talked to has talked to him.’

‘I did this, in other words. I’ve made this happen to her.’

‘No. Don’t do that, Robin,’ Dennis put his hand on her arm.

‘Just try to concentrate,’ said Samir. ‘Tell us again who you spoke to. Everyone.’