DI Radford was in Martha’s living room, issuing orders over the phone. When he finished his call she asked if they could talk and Graham and Suni tactfully moved into the kitchen to give them some privacy.

‘It’s nothing personal,’ Martha explained. ‘I’d just like to know what’s going to happen tomorrow. I can’t seem to get my head around it all.’

‘We’ll go along with the kidnappers’ instructions but naturally we’ll be watching in the hope of following them back to wherever they’re holding Danny.’

Martha sighed. ‘But they said there should be no police. If they see you the kidnappers might harm Danny.’

‘They won’t see us, Martha, you can be sure of that. The plan is to get your husband to go to Little Stainsbeck, alone as they’ve asked. But we have officers scoping out the village to decide where we can best see the handover without being seen ourselves, which could even be from a resident’s window. Most people are only too happy to assist when we ask for help. So our officers will be in place from 4am, watching every road into and out of the village.’

‘Will they bring Danny with them? Won’t Richard have to see him before the money is handed over?’

‘For the present, we’re assuming they’ll bring Danny with them and once they’re happy they’ve got the money, they’ll release him. Yet they may want to check the money first and then tell Richard where to find Danny. We have to be prepared to act on whatever the kidnappers decide to do. I’m afraid at the moment they’re holding all the cards.’

‘What if we only have some of the money?’ It was a very real possibility that Martha could barely bring herself to think about.

‘I can’t give you a definitive answer. They may take the money without counting it and if it’s short, come back for more. Or they might simply take what they’re given, cut their losses and run. I think the latter is the most likely scenario. What’s happened so far makes me think these kidnappers aren’t professionals. The amount they’ve asked for is relatively small – certainly hardened kidnappers would have asked for considerably more. They also haven’t been too forthcoming in the detail of how they want things to go off tomorrow.

‘As you know, they’ve given us very little information, such as whether they’ll bring Danny or drop him off somewhere afterwards. So unless we hear from them again today, we’re going to have to wing it and expect the unexpected.’

Martha didn’t want to hear how uncertain it all was, but she knew he couldn’t give her assurance of how the following day would turn out. Any hope he could offer would probably be false hope.