“He called you Megan?”

“Then he showed me their wedding pictures and a hundred other things to prove exactly who he was.”

“Did he want you to be Megan?” Vicky asks.

“He wanted my money.” I shrug and spread my hands, palms down, on the desk. “He told me he would kill Megan if I didn’t hand over everything to him. I don’t know how he knew so much about my balances in my various accounts, but he’d obviously done a lot of research.”

“So, what did you do?”

I will tears to form in my eyes and swallow a few times. “I thought it would all be OK. I thought you would come for me.” I watch as the detectives exchange blank looks. “But you didn’t.” I let out something akin to a wail. “I waited and hoped and prayed, but no one came.” They continue their blank looks of incomprehension as I sob into the tissue Vicky passes me.

“No one knew you were missing,” she says eventually.

I take a deep breath; this is starting to challenge my acting prowess and I can feel myself getting tired. I don’t know how actors do it, filming harrowing scenes over and over without fatigue setting in and causing them to stumble over their lines. I turn my attention to DCI Rosenmeyer; I think it is fairer that way.

“You should have known.” My voice now carries a hint of anger, a flash in my eyes. “I guess I just wasn’t on your priority list.”

“Now, now, Leah.” DCI Rosenmeyer breaks the concerned detective routine for a few seconds. He has probably been told to try to sweep this under the carpet.

“I raised the alarm and you left me. To fend for myself against a psychopath.” Even I don’t know if I’m meant to be distraught by the outcome or angry as hell at their incompetence. I am therefore treading the thin line right down the middle, and I’m surprising myself at how genuine I seem.

“We couldn’t track you.” He is speaking in the way you would to an injured animal, when you are not sure whether it will curl into a ball or rip your throat out. “There were too many layers of encryption and location muffling. You could have been anywhere.”

“Sorry?” Vicky is still looking blankly at the two of us. “What are you talking about?”

There has definitely been some kind of cover-up here. I imagine it’s all a bit embarrassing for the police for it to come to light that the missing woman—who has finally turned up but not in the clutches of the innocent man they arrested—was actually flagged as the potential victim of a hostage situation by her very expensive bank weeks ago.

DCI Rosenmeyer sits back in his chair and squirms a little.

“I think it’s best if Leah tells us her side of the story. Let’s get it all out in the open and we can go on from there.”