Richard was straining to hear what the detectives in his kitchen were saying, but the door was closed and they spoke quietly. Martha leaned her head back onto the sofa and closed her eyes; she knew she wouldn’t sleep but her eyes felt heavy and gritty and at least she’d be spared any more of Suni’s well-meaning attempts at conversation.

Every minute seemed like an hour and by 8.30am the day had already been interminably long. Radford was once again on the phone and when he ended the call, he sat down to address the Stones.

‘That was the officer who’s visiting the school. He’s with the head teacher now and they’ve got Danny’s rucksack. Someone found it and took it back to the school at about 6pm last evening.’

Martha paled. ‘Where was it found?’

‘Not far from the school apparently, under a bush in someone’s front garden. It gives us an approximate location to begin looking for witnesses who might have seen what happened, but I’m afraid Danny’s phone is in the bag.’

Martha’s eyes filled with tears. She’d desperately hoped Danny might be able to make a call, a slim hope which suddenly evaporated. Richard took his wife’s hand but continued to talk to DI Radford.

‘What did the letter say? I can understand why we couldn’t handle it but all you’ve told us is that they want three hundred thousand pounds. Did they give any instructions for us to follow, a time and place to hand it over?’

Radford wasn’t very forthcoming. ‘No, they just stated what they wanted so we can expect to hear from them again and probably quite soon.’

Martha spoke up. ‘We can get the money together. Then give it to them and get Danny home. You can track them down after he’s safely home can’t you?’ It seemed clear to Martha and she knew the money wasn’t an issue – even if they didn’t get it back, it was a small price to pay for their son’s life. Yet as she spoke, she realised it was too simplistic.

Radford spoke softly. ‘It’s not quite so straightforward, Martha. If they get the money too easily they may demand more and your son’s safety isn’t guaranteed even then. Although if you can get the money together, we can open a dialogue with the kidnappers – naturally we’ll need proof that Danny is safe before we hand it over.’

Martha groaned and turned away from the detective – her arms across her chest as if holding a child who wasn’t there.

‘It’ll take time to get the money together,’ Richard said. His wife flashed him an angry look.

‘No it won’t. With our savings and Danny’s university money we can soon raise it. The bank will help too, I’m sure.’