‘Yes, get a couple of uniforms to meet us down there and an armed response unit. We’ll take my car.’ Radford dumped his coffee cup in the bin. He was fired up and already hurrying towards the door.

It was about eight miles from the police station to the service area and Radford turned on the siren for the first seven, silencing them for the last mile so as not to announce their arrival. Neither officer had any idea of what they might find and so far during the journey they’d avoided speculation.

‘Get the uniforms and armed response to wait outside the service area. We’ll meet them there,’ Radford ordered as they approached their destination. Graham immediately made the calls. When he’d finished, Radford asked, ‘It’s been about four hours since Stone entered the service station, so why’s he still there?’

‘Perhaps the kidnappers haven’t shown up yet?’ Graham offered.

‘No, they wouldn’t make such an early rendezvous and then not show up. Something’s keeping Stone there. I think we can safely assume he hasn’t got the boy back or he’d have left for home or at least rung his wife. I’m only hoping he hasn’t tried anything stupid – he knows they have a gun. Perhaps we should get an ambulance on standby too? We don’t know what we’re going to find.’

Graham made the call. The heavy rain had eased and only a fine drizzle remained but the surface water on the motorway sprayed the speeding car. When they arrived, the two uniforms were there but not the armed response team.

Graham was keeping the line open to monitor their progress. ‘ETA is six minutes.’

‘Good, we’ll wait. I don’t want us walking into an unknown situation without backup.’

Six minutes passed and the team arrived – four officers in full protective gear. They handed out bulletproof vests to Radford, Foster and the uniforms, then the three cars drove slowly and silently into the car park with the armed officers in the front.

Nothing untoward was visible on first sight so they parked their vehicles well away from civilian cars and the officers alighted to take their orders from Radford. He divided them into four teams, each one with an armed officer, and they proceeded to search the perimeters of the sprawling car park before deciding whether to go inside.

Radford was the first to spot Stone’s car and rang the others to join him. They cautiously approached the car from behind – an armed officer leading the way. There appeared to be only one man inside, presumably Stone. He was slumped over the steering wheel, not moving. Radford feared the worst as he stood the armed officer down and guardedly opened the driver’s side door.

Startled at the sudden noise, Richard looked up, a dazed expression on his face.

‘Are you okay?’ Radford asked quickly.