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Chapters (62)
  1. Title
  2. Copyright
  3. Contents
  4. About the Author
  5. About the Book
  6. Dedication
  7. Your Worst Nightmare
  8. ONE
  9. TWO
  10. THREE
  11. FOUR
  12. FIVE
  13. SIX
  14. SEVEN
  15. EIGHT
  16. NINE
  17. The Answer to All Your Prayers
  18. TEN
  19. ELEVEN
  20. TWELVE
  21. THIRTEEN
  22. FOURTEEN
  23. FIFTEEN
  24. SIXTEEN
  25. SEVENTEEN
  26. EIGHTEEN
  27. NINETEEN
  28. TWENTY
  29. TWENTY-ONE
  30. TWENTY-TWO
  31. TWENTY-THREE
  32. TWENTY-FOUR
  33. TWENTY-FIVE
  34. TWENTY-SIX
  35. TWENTY-SEVEN
  36. TWENTY-EIGHT
  37. TWENTY-NINE
  38. THIRTY
  39. THIRTY-ONE
  40. Somebody Else’s Child
  41. THIRTY-TWO
  42. THIRTY-THREE
  43. THIRTY-FOUR
  44. THIRTY-FIVE
  45. THIRTY-SIX
  46. THIRTY-SEVEN
  47. THIRTY-EIGHT
  48. THIRTY-NINE
  49. FORTY
  50. FORTY-ONE
  51. FORTY-TWO
  52. FORTY-THREE
  53. FORTY-FOUR
  54. FORTY-FIVE
  55. FORTY-SIX
  56. FORTY-SEVEN
  57. FORTY-EIGHT
  58. FORTY-NINE
  59. Sunlight on Water
  60. July
  61. September
  62. Acknowledgements

‘You know me. I’m not good with technology, and you know my thoughts on putting your faith in ANPR. Did you see that story in the Telegraph?’

‘I don’t believe I’ve ever read a story in the Telegraph.’

‘Maybe you should. What they were reporting was that one in twelve drivers is now taking steps to outwit the cameras. One in twelve is up to something dodgy, Rachel. Cloned number plates, altering digits and letters, all ducking and diving under the ANPR lenses. All you need’s a permanent marker and you’re away.

‘So when I heard where the boy was found, I got out my trusty road atlas, and had a look at that neck of the woods. And you’re quite right, there’re thousands of places where they might have kept him. But I think you should consider a different viewpoint.’

‘As in?’

‘What does a tight bastard like me hate more than anything? Being ripped off at the pumps. It really bugs me, being made to pay over the odds at motorway service stations. So what do I do? Firstly, if I’m travelling on the motorways, I make sure I’ve got a reasonable amount of fuel before I set off. Secondly, if I do need fuel, I won’t pay service-station prices. I leave the motorway and drive a couple of miles to find somewhere cheaper. Especially if I’m going to be travelling a long way. Now, if you look at the map, what do you see in the Pontefract area? Arterial routes. The M62 running east to west, and the A1 running north–south. It’s a national intersection.’

Naylor drinks more of her coffee. For a few moments, neither of them speak.

‘You’re saying we shouldn’t focus on West Yorkshire.’

‘I’m suggesting you consider the possibility the driver was hard up or tight like me, and didn’t want to pay top whack for a tank of fuel. So he made a detour to a cheaper filling station. I’m suggesting that it might have been anywhere, and that Pontefract is an irrelevance. That it just happened to be the place where the fuel gauge hit red. And bearing in mind what I said about not getting caught short, that by the time they reached the Pontefract area, they’d already burned a significant amount of fuel.’

Naylor looks at him.

‘That’s not very helpful,’ she says. ‘That would mean we should extend our search area massively towards every point of the compass.’