‘Once he had made the arrangements – once he had given the orders – he told them that if the police were called or in any way involved, the kids would die. And just to show them that he was serious, he brought them two fingers from Tina’s left hand. Which did exactly the job it was intended to do. The father did as he was ordered, and Hirst drove away with a van full of over seven hundred thousand pounds. A serious haul for one night’s work.

‘That should have been that. The kids should have been released and he should have escaped with the best part of a million in cash. But for some reason only that sick bastard will ever understand, he didn’t let them go as promised. And once they weren’t released their parents reported the whole thing to the police, who started a manhunt.

‘It didn’t take too long; Hirst hadn’t planned the backend of the job nearly as well as he had the front. After the robbery he stayed put, in the same warehouse where he was keeping the children. He didn’t think to move, which was his undoing. Well, that and the time frame from the first night.

‘It was Adam Blunt who found him. Blunt worked out the possible driving distances on the night of the kidnap. How far Hirst could have gone in the time it took before he came back to give his instructions to the parents. Using that time frame, Blunt was able to triangulate the furthest distance he could have reached and then identify the most likely hiding places within that distance. Of those possibilities, his gut took him to an old industrial estate. They found the children right there. Little Tommy was already dead. Suffocated, the autopsy said. But Tina was still alive. Badly injured, but alive. Two fingers missing, obviously. But other injuries too. Mental and physical. Not the least of which was that she’d watched her brother die.’

‘How was he caught?’ It was Sarah who asked. When Michael looked over to answer he saw tears in her eyes. It surprised him. In her job she heard far worse than this. Meaning the heightened emotion was coming from elsewhere.

Derek’s death, he thought. But what he did not know was the blame Sarah was placing on herself. Blame for not giving Hirst’s name to Levy.

Michael hated to see Sarah cry, but now was not the time to console her. He had to finish what he had started; the most important details were still to come.

He answered Sarah’s question.

‘Blunt again. With the help of a police helicopter. A figure was spotted two acres away from the warehouse. Hirst had heard the police coming from a distance. Which was when he proved – for me – that he might be a psycho, but he certainly wasn’t crazy. A crazy man would waste time on the children. Kill the remaining witnesses. For pleasure, or in some hope it might make a difference. Not Hirst. He didn’t go near Tina again. He just ran without a moment of hesitation. The man was always thinking, and he knew that any delay could end with him being caught. So he ran.’