Instinctively Danny curled into a ball, attempting to make himself as small as possible as if he could shrink into the very mattress itself and become invisible. For the first time Danny wished there were bolts on the inside of the door to shut out his captors and remain safely where he was. Pete said he’d given Danny’s father two more days to get the money which meant another two days as their prisoner. Could he bear it? And Lewis was hurt. He’d looked dazed, disorientated and the wound on his head probably needed stitching but he doubted they’d take him to hospital.

Danny was shaking with fear and cold as he wondered what Pete would do to him now. Nothing was certain anymore. Another clap of thunder resounded in the bare room, followed immediately by a flash of lightning. For an instant the room lost its black and white hostile sense as the lightning brought a splash of vivid colour into the space, the colour of the blood on Lewis’s face. It reminded Danny how his predicament had changed in an instant. All he could think about was that he’d seen his captors. And they know I’ve seen them.

26

DAY 4

Richard Stone wasn’t pleased when DI Radford arrived later in the afternoon and asked to talk to him again. Martha was upstairs but when he offered to call her down he was told it wouldn’t be necessary – it was only Richard they wanted to see.

Radford introduced DS Bennet and briefly explained that he was on secondment from Leeds. Richard nodded at the newcomer before turning towards Radford as if already bored with the endless questions. He led them into the lounge where the three men sat down.

‘We haven’t heard from them yet,’ Richard said, tilting his head up slightly, ‘but we’ve managed to raise the rest of the money which we can pick up in the morning.’ The police didn’t need to know anything else as far as Richard was concerned.

‘Good. We’ll have officers on standby ready to shadow you when they instruct you where to go.’

Richard shuffled uncomfortably. The phone the kidnappers had given him was deep in his trouser pocket and he hoped it didn’t ring while the police were with him.

‘Right,’ he said, ‘but they gave me another forty-eight hours to get the money together so they probably won’t contact us until the time’s nearly up.’

‘Yes, you could be right. Now I know you told us everything that happened this morning but I wonder if you could go over it again,’ Radford asked.