What he knew of the layout of the house wasn’t very encouraging. The front door was locked and he still didn’t know if there was a key or if it really was bolted from the outside. From his earlier failed attempt to escape he knew the back door, although not as strong as the front, was also locked, with wire mesh on the outside, making it unlikely he could get out that way.

Upstairs, Danny had only been in the room he was in now and the bathroom, both of which were escape-proof. There were two more doors upstairs and it was time to check them out.

As quietly as he could, he opened the door and stepped onto the landing. Lewis and his mother were talking downstairs, but it was only background noise, the words fuzzy. Moving silently down the corridor towards the front of the house, Danny opened the first door. It was an empty cupboard, no windows, no way out.

The next door along must be another bedroom. Danny hadn’t given much thought to where Lewis and his mum slept; he’d assumed it was downstairs as he’d seen her sleeping on the sofa and Lewis probably slept on the chair. Danny moved slowly towards the door and turned the handle a fraction at a time, willing it not to creak. It didn’t, so very slowly he pushed the door open and stepped inside what was almost certainly another bedroom.

It was a larger room than the one he’d been locked in and completely empty. Danny instinctively went to the window. When he saw the nails in the frame and the familiar heavy wire mesh on the outside, he burst into tears. Sitting in the corner of the cold empty room, Danny cried as he’d never done before – all hope gone. He was convinced he’d never get out of that miserable house alive.

Danny hardly noticed Lewis and his mother entering the room. Lewis sat down beside him. Sally stood in the doorway – her arms folded.

‘It’s only for another night, Dan. Tomorrow your parents will give Pete the money and they’ll let you go. One more night – that’s all.’ Lewis’s eyes sparkled with tears and Danny thought, not for the first time, what a strange boy he was. For someone involved in kidnapping for money, he was remarkably kind, far more than his mother.