‘Better,’ says Claire. ‘He’s been doing better, but he’s not right, he’s not normal. He acts like a boy half his age. He lives in his own world, and he’s content there, finding his way. If you go making him remember, how can it not set him back?’

Claire’s right, of course, and Hagen and Naylor know it.

‘We have people who are specially trained,’ says Hagen. ‘They tread very carefully. They’d take it at a pace comfortable for him.’

‘I don’t believe you,’ says Claire. ‘You need information, and you need it as quickly as possible. If that means riding roughshod over Evan, I think that’s what you’ll do.’

‘Don’t you think Evan will want to help, when he knows what’s happened?’

Claire shrugs.

‘You’d have to ask him that.’

‘Can we speak to him?’

‘He isn’t here.’

This is a blow Naylor and Hagen aren’t expecting.

‘Where is he?’ asks Hagen.

‘He’s staying with his grandfather, up in Yorkshire. He feels safe up there, and he’s company for my father-in-law. My mother-in-law died recently, and my father-in-law’s taken it hard. They suit each other pretty well, two damaged souls, shut away from the world. I’ve been up there a fair bit myself, so you’re lucky to find me here, to be honest. I come back for Matt’s sake. It’s hardly fair on him, is it, always coming home to an empty house? But to be frank I really wouldn’t be happy about you intruding on Evan, and I don’t think Matt would be either.’

‘Claire, I understand one hundred percent where you’re coming from,’ says Naylor. ‘And we can’t force you to do anything, we can’t force Evan to help. But we would really appreciate it if you’d talk it over with Matt, see what he thinks, and maybe talk to Evan. For Liam’s sake, for his family’s sake. You could be key in getting to him before too much damage is done.’

‘The damage is already done by now, though, isn’t it?’ says Claire. ‘Now it’s degrees of damage he might never come back from. Like Evan.’

Naylor is on the point of telling the whole truth, of telling Claire something she hasn’t said before. Too much experience in cases of this kind suggests that when Evan was found, chances are he was hours away from a shallow grave, lost forever on wasteland or bleak moorland. The problem paedophile rings have with their victims is perpetual: children grow older and grow up, and no longer suit their abusers’ tastes.

But Claire’s been through enough, and if she hasn’t thought of it herself, she doesn’t need to know.