‘How the fuck did this happen?’ Bish asked Elliot when he rang.

‘It goes viral, and no one’s accountable. The press still don’t have permission to release his name, but that means nothing when over a million people have already seen an image of Eddie and know his full name.’

Bish heard shouting in the background. ‘Where are you?’ he asked.

‘In the office. Grazier isn’t taking it well. He’s paying a visit to the Dover police and then heading out to Tonbridge to have a word with a few of the locals.’

‘There’s not much he can do about them,’ Bish said.

‘Oh but he’ll try. He wants you to visit LeBrac again. Violette used to speak to her mother every day, so who better to know her whereabouts, or at least her plans.’

‘Pick that woman’s brain,’ Grazier shouted, replacing Elliot on the line. ‘I want those kids brought in. I want them in a safe house. What part of that don’t these people understand?’

‘The part where they don’t feel particularly comfortable being reassured by the police or the government,’ Bish said.

‘You’re beginning to piss me off, Ortley.’

‘It took you this long?’

Bish’s reading that night was the rest of the file Grazier had given him a few days ago. He started looking for anything in the Sarraf and LeBrac family histories that could shed light on how best to persuade Noor to open up. Most of the media articles were based solely on opinion. There was nothing on Jamal Sarraf post his arrest, but a great deal prior to it when Man United signed him up. Young Sarraf spoke obsessively about his old coach from the Brackenham council estate, and his mates there who’d watched his back, no matter what. His favourite topic was his girlfriend Layla, but it was the reverence he showed for his mother and sister that was most profound.

‘Before my sister and me, no one in our family had any sense of a home country,’ he was quoted as saying in one interview. He went on to relate that his mother had been born in Beirut, and at fifteen had made her way to Alexandria, on her own, to work for a wealthy relative. His father was born in Alexandria to a French mother and Egyptian father. When his mother was pregnant they left Egypt to head for the UK, but ended up having Noor en route, in Le Havre. ‘Fifteen years later,’ said Jimmy, ‘my mum wanted me born in the same place as my sister. It’s sort of cool because it’s also where my brother-in-law was born before his family migrated to Australia, which was a bit of a coincidence. So obviously my niece Violette had to be born in Le Havre. We like it that there’s a family tradition when it comes to passports and stuff like that. But Noor and I have never been confused about who we are. If there were two things we were sure of growing up, it was belonging to England and speaking Arabic. We didn’t let religion rule. It’s what me and my girl Layla have in common. Her mother’s Christian, my mother’s Muslim. Her father’s Muslim, my father’s Christian. We say it all the time: our kids are going to have the best of both worlds.’