The neglected farmhouse was cold and damp yet surprisingly retained electricity and water supplies. Furnishings were sparse – a television in the lounge and a microwave oven and kettle in the kitchen – suggested recent occupancy. Upstairs it appeared only one bedroom had been used, the smallest room, with a single grubby-looking mattress, a couple of blankets and a stinking bucket in the corner. Bolts on the outside of the door confirmed to Radford that this was the room where Danny had been held.

Crudely fitted wire grills covered the outside of every window and as the detective viewed the area from upstairs, he shuddered. Being kept in such circumstances would be frightening for an adult. How much more fearful would it have been for Danny?

Radford left the house as the police crime-scene officers arrived to tape the building off. He traipsed through the mud to the barn where the first thing he noticed was a discarded tarpaulin. Presumably it had covered another vehicle as the white van was still in the courtyard. He would find out from the man they’d arrested at the scene who appeared keen to cooperate.

Clear tyre tracks led out of the barn, imprinted in the mud, which would tell them something about the vehicle. Alex would mention it to the SOCOs. There were also two full cans of petrol and Radford wondered if the plan had been to torch the buildings when they left, to destroy any evidence of their activity.

He winced at the thought of what might have been. Could the kidnappers have intended to leave Danny in the house as it burned? Perhaps not, if this was the same crew responsible for snatching the girl in Dave Bennet’s case. But whatever their plan, things seemed to have gone awry – the kidnappers had parted company, Danny had run away and a boy was dead.

The DI stood pensively in the farmyard, looking towards the wood. As far as he was aware the trees covered several acres of land in which Danny could very easily get lost. The boy’s physical condition was unknown but he must surely be terrified. Radford didn’t want to speculate on how Danny might have been treated. His thoughts were interrupted by his phone. Dee Samms was ringing from the station.

‘I’ve run a background check on Turner, sir. He has a history of petty crime as a teenager, mainly shoplifting. It seems he was in the care of social services and absconded a couple of times. He graduated to joyriding at seventeen and there’s a charge of assault but we have nothing more since then. So it looks like he either went straight or has managed not to get caught.’