‘Don’t be such a bloody fool! We have your son and it seems we need to hurt him so you’ll know we mean business.’ The man still held the gun frighteningly close to Richard’s head.

‘No, please don’t hurt him! I can get you the rest; I just need more time.’

‘And why should we babysit your kid in the meantime?’ the man barked.

Time appeared to stand still for a few moments as the kidnapper considered what to do. He pressed the gun into Richard’s cheek. ‘You’ve got forty-eight hours – the clock’s ticking. And I think we should have a little bonus for our inconvenience. Shall we say another ten thousand on top of the balance owing? Keep the phone but don’t tell the police you have it. If you do, be assured Danny will suffer. We’ll be in touch.’

With that, the men climbed back into their van, overtook Richard’s car and sped away leaving him staring blankly after them, devastated and physically trembling. He couldn’t imagine what Martha would say and how the police would react to his fooling them. And he had to find another hundred and twenty thousand in only forty-eight hours.

23

DAY 4

Martha studied Alex Radford’s face. He was clearly livid but doing his best to remain calm and rational.

After he finished yet another phone call, Martha grabbed his arm. ‘What’s going on? Why would he take a different route?’

‘I don’t know but we still have the tracker in the holdall so we’ll know where he is at all times.’

Suni, who’d arrived just after Richard left, was monitoring the tracker on her laptop and interrupted to tell her boss the car had stopped, less than a mile away. Radford and Foster ran from the house to their car, keeping in touch with Suni on the phone.

The tracker remained motionless.

When the detectives arrived at the Red Lion car park, it was to find that Richard’s car was nowhere in sight. They searched the area and eventually spotted the holdall on the other side of the hedge, empty, except for the tracker. Richard’s phone was on the wet grass beside it.

‘Bloody hell, he’s on his own now! Who the hell knows how this will work out.’ Radford was angry but mainly with himself. He’d put all his eggs in one basket and scrambled didn’t begin to describe what kind of fool he felt. All the resources and man-hours they’d put into this operation were wasted.

Graham made calls to stand down most of the officers in the area, while Alex Radford called Suni and asked her to inform Martha what was happening. All they could do was to wait until Richard turned up and waiting wasn’t one of the DI’s strong points.