‘There’s another target?’ Levy exclaimed, startled and angry at the same time. ‘Why the hell haven’t you mentioned her until now, Michael? You were fast enough demanding protection for Derek Reid and telling me how to do my job when it came to Anne Flaherty. But not Tina Barker? She just slipped your mind?’

‘She didn’t slip anything,’ Michael snapped, riled by Levy’s tone and overwrought after the trauma of the day. ‘And don’t lose your temper with me. I’m doing the best I can in the circumstances.’

‘Then give me a reason to keep my temper.’ Levy met Michael’s glare, matched its intensity with her own. ‘Because right now it looks like you’ve left a potential target hanging out to dry.’

‘I didn’t mention Tina because I didn’t think she was in any danger,’ Michael replied, still rankled. ‘Christ, I still don’t. She’s been safe in witness protection for almost two decades, so I don’t see how Hirst could track her down. But you want to know everything and that’s everything!’

Levy’s eyes stayed fixed on Michael’s. Neither looked ready to back down from their confrontation. Alpha personalities rarely do.

‘How the hell is this helping anyone?’ Sarah’s voice cut through the angry silence. ‘It isn’t and it won’t. So stop this shit! Both of you!’

Michael did not respond. Levy’s suggestion – and her tone – had provoked him. On any normal day he would have risen above it, but today was as far from normal as it could get.

Levy’s blood, it seemed, had not risen so high.

‘She’s right,’ she said grudgingly. ‘I just don’t want to lose anyone else to this sick bastard. And if we’re going to achieve that then I need to know what we’re dealing with.’

Levy sat back on her stool and took a small sip from her glass.

‘Just tell me what I need to know.’

Michael leaned forward and placed both forearms on the worktop, steeling himself. This time he did not touch his drink. He knew it was time to tell his part of the story. He inhaled deeply.

‘Tina Barker was eleven years old when Hirst took her. Her brother, Tommy, was eight. Their father was the manager of a high street bank in Guildford. The biggest in the area, but still a local bank. That made it a perfect target. Lower security but still likely a big haul for whoever was willing to take it on a Friday. Which Karl Hirst certainly was.

‘Hirst took the children on the Thursday night. In the most brazen way possible. He broke in after the family had gone to sleep. Tied and gagged them all in their beds: both kids, mum and dad. He carried the children one at a time to a van he had waiting on the drive, and drove them away to a disused warehouse five miles away. Once he was there he tied them up again and then went back to their parents.

‘He kept the father and mother bound as he gave them their instructions. The father was to make sure that he was the last person in the bank on the Friday evening. He was to work late and make sure everyone else left. Then Hirst would arrive at the rear of the bank in his van, be given access to the safe and time to clear it. Hirst would then leave, head back to the kids and release them at a location he would disclose in a telephone call to their parents.