Wynne stood by the bank of the canal. At the far end of the industrial estate, and hidden from view unless you happened to be standing at this exact spot on the towpath, the canal widened. It was some kind of turning circle. It didn’t look like it got much use – this whole stretch of the canal was not exactly popular with the pleasure boaters – and at the far end a large section of it was overgrown with thick, brambly bushes.

She walked over. If someone wanted to conceal a small houseboat they could do it there. It wouldn’t exactly be hidden, but it would be obscured, and there was no one here to see it anyway.

Her heart rate rising, she approached the bushes. As she did the ground grew softer, the moisture kept in by the foliage.

She stopped and stared at the ground.

‘Shit,’ she said. ‘He was right.’

In the soft ground there were sets of fresh footprints.

Saturday, 23 June 2018

Evening

Maggie

They were on a boat. The man had dragged her from the boot of his car and led her across some kind of wasteland to a white boat, moored on a canal. In those few moments she had stared at the sky. Breathed in the air. It was the first time she had been outside in more than a decade.

There was a cabin in the front and he had thrown her in. Max was still in the car and she had tried to ask about him but the words were muffled by the gag. The man slammed the door and left.

Maggie’s arms were bound at the wrists and her ankles were tied. There was a gag stuffed in her mouth – I’ll do something more permanent later, the man said – and she had a throbbing headache where the shovel had hit her.

The door opened and the man pushed Max into the cabin. He, too, was gagged. She had managed to pick him up by putting her bound wrists over his head and under his bottom. His face was dirty and streaked with tears; she pictured him, eyes wide with panic, as the man tied the gag around his head and shoved him into the cabin.

It was the first time he had ever been outside. Not a great way to start.

Then the engine had fired up and the boat had started to move. It was slow, and, in a small mercy, the gentle rocking had sent Max to sleep.

Leaving her alone to try and think what the man was planning.