The teenagers who had seen the incident were interviewed at the school and offered counselling. One pupil had filmed the abduction taking place on his mobile, but much of the action was hidden behind busy traffic. There was a clear view of the vehicle, a blue Mazda, but the driver who bundled Lucas inside was mostly obscured by passing vehicles and the jerky movements of the kid holding the phone. He and his friends gasped in excitement and disbelief when Simon was struck by the van. Other witnesses confirmed that the car’s number plates were hidden.

A child rescue alert had already been issued; local taxi drivers and other emergency services were notified. Local radio and TV networks made appeals. Patrol cars combed the streets and a helicopter sent from the police air base in North Weald flew over the town. As Sasha stood in the middle of the street barking into her mobile, she could hear its low throb disturbing the quiet of the afternoon, occasionally glimpsed its hard silver body glinting against the sun as it hovered in the distance, monitoring traffic, watching for suspicious activity, for that Mazda.

As news of Lucas’s abduction spread around the school, causing fear and upset, the decision was made to send pupils home for the rest of the day. Parents were contacted by text and asked to collect their children, and it was requested they didn’t come by car. Pupils whose parents weren’t able to come early were discouraged from going home alone and required to wait in the school hall. Staff were under strict instructions not to allow kids to leave with anybody unfamiliar.

Sasha spent most of her afternoon moving back and forth between the crime scene and the school, coordinating the search for the vehicle and the missing boy. She eventually managed to sit down with Karin in the headmaster’s office and they discussed the sequence of events: Simon’s arrival and Lucas’s appearance, his abduction.

‘Tell me again about the driver,’ said Sasha, encouraging Karin to dig a little deeper for detail. ‘It was a man, you said?’

‘I think so.’ Karin was still shaken. ‘He was tall, with broad shoulders. But he was across the road, it all happened so quickly, and there was so much traffic, so I couldn’t see properly. He wore a balaclava. Look, can we speak again later, I really need to see how Simon is doing.’

‘I won’t keep you much longer.’

Karin stood, frustrated. ‘I don’t even know where he’s been taken.’

‘He’s at University Hospital,’ Lolly said from the doorway.

‘Why did Simon come to see you?’

Karin looked uncomfortable at Sasha’s question. ‘We discussed what was happening with Sammi’s abduction… and the news about Paul.’

‘His rucksack was found on the street,’ Sasha said. ‘He looked like he was about to leave town. You know he’d be violating his bail conditions.’