When Danny’s sobbing ceased, he lay curled up on the mattress for what seemed like hours, listening to the noises from below and shivering until his teeth rattled. He longed for the men to leave, hopefully to collect the ransom money, and so Lewis could come back and tell him what was going on. He did come eventually, but his face held no sign of hope. Lewis had clearly been crying too, and as he moved to sit on the mattress, he seemed reluctant to look Danny in the eyes.

16

DAY 3

Martha and Richard had raised a hundred and ninety thousand pounds in cash – still over a hundred thousand short of what the kidnappers were asking and Martha was in no doubt that Richard was to blame. He was being stubbornly vague about the so-called investments, finally admitting that the money had gone into property. Martha accused him of buying into some bogus timeshare scheme in a foreign country, which he denied, yet could offer no alternative explanation and insisted there was no paperwork to show her.

When the police left for the night, the couple ended up having a blazing row, both shouting hurtful things when they should have been comforting each other. The atmosphere was decidedly frosty when Richard stormed off to bed.

Martha knew there’d be no sleep for her that night and didn’t even bother to go upstairs to get ready for bed, intending instead to stay where she was and pray for things to go well the following day. Not being religious in any way she barely knew where to start. A pang of guilt struck her – a feeling of hypocrisy for only turning to God out of desperation. Should she light a candle – offer God her confessions? Martha shook her head, then closed her eyes and simply whispered her dearest wish – to have Danny back home.

Outside, the rain battered the windows, blown by a fierce wind which bent the trees in the garden and whistled in the chimney. Alone on the sofa staring into the inky black night sky, Martha mentally took a step back from her marriage. Like most other couples, she would have described it as a happy one, until Monday. But then, replaying the argument of a few hours earlier it struck Martha that she felt indifferent to her marriage and to Richard. Earlier, she’d come close to hating her husband. Rationally, she knew the kidnapping wasn’t his fault or hers. Danny had been on his way home from school, like thousands of other children across the country, but he’d been the one selected to be snatched away, to be cruelly separated from her, for money.