‘We’ll bring a tree. We’ll bring turkey, pudding, the lot. All you have to do is sit and drink your Glenfiddich and wear a party hat. You can do that, Dad, for Mum’s sake. Listen, can Evan hear what you’re saying?’

‘He’s watching telly. I’m out in the hall.’

‘Have you seen the news today?’

‘We don’t watch the news. You know that.’

‘Well, first of all please make sure you don’t, not in front of Evan. Something’s happened. We’ve had the police round. They came to see Claire this afternoon.’

‘Have they got the bastards?’

‘I only wish they had. Actually, it’s the opposite. Another boy’s been taken.’ Jack takes a deep breath and decides to sit down. ‘Are you there, Dad?’

‘I’m here. That’s very bad news.’

‘They think it’s the same gang or ring or whatever they call themselves. The same ones who took Evan.’

‘God help him. How old?’

‘Eleven.’

Jack shakes his head.

‘And does this unfortunate young man have a name?’

‘Liam.’

‘If I ever get near them, they’ll wish they’d never been born.’

‘The thing is, Dad, the police want to talk to Evan. Hardly surprising, really. They want to see if he knows anything that can help them. He must know something, after all. He might know plenty, if only he’d talk.’

‘He says enough, these days,’ says Jack, ‘enough to get by. There’s too much chatter in the world anyway, if you ask me.’

‘Claire and I talked, and we think we should try and help, as one family to another. If there’d been anything anyone could have done to help us, we’d have been desperate for them to do it. We just think it wouldn’t be fair to say no, for Liam’s sake. For his parents’ and grandparents’ sake. What do you think?’

Jack considers, and as he’s thinking, he believes he hears a footfall on the stairs, on the second step from the top which always creaks. He turns and looks up to the landing. No one is there.

But it makes him think of Dora and what she would say. She’d try and help, without the slightest hesitation.

‘If you agree then I’ll agree, but it isn’t down to us, is it? It’s up to Evan.’

‘We think you could persuade him. We think he’ll listen to you.’

‘And if he says yes? Have we got to come hiking down there? I don’t believe I’m up to driving all that way, not the way I’ve been feeling. My ticker hasn’t been good. The doctor’s given me some new pills.’

‘They’d come up there, Dad. And either me or Claire would come too. You won’t have to drive anywhere.’

Jack sighs.