‘Michelle is going to take a package of money to the usual drop-off this afternoon. As soon as someone tries to collect it, we’ll move in.’

‘Okay, keep me across it.’ More calm now, Vaughn settled back. ‘How’s DC Power settling in?’

‘Honestly? I like him but it’s been a bumpy ride so far. Craig blows hot and cold. He also has a tendency to rub people up the wrong way.’ Craig’s arrogance and Big City attitude, the way he talked constantly about all the exciting investigations he worked on at Brixton, name-checking gangsters and crime lords, went down badly here on the Thames Estuary, where things moved at a slower pace. ‘I don’t understand it, he came highly recommended by the Met.’

‘Course he did, they probably wanted him off their hands. Power sounds like me when I was his age. I was desperate to make my mark, too. Let me know if you want me to have a word.’ He thought of something else. ‘And how’s that husband of yours?’

‘Kev?’ Sasha smiled blandly. ‘He’s top of the world, as always, and the kids are doing great.’

A few months back, Sasha and Vaughn and their other halves had gone to a swish restaurant. It was an enjoyable evening, the food was good, if pricey, but she and Kev were intimidated by Vaughn’s wife, Miranda, an effortlessly glamorous lady.

Vaughn and Miranda had two adolescent sons who were tall and handsome, athletic, polite and both on track to attend Oxbridge. Sasha tried not to compare her own children to others, but Denny and Angel weren’t what anybody would call academic. Getting them to put down their phones and pick up a book was like getting blood from a stone.

‘It’s a digital world now,’ Denny had teensplained to her when she’d tried to impress on him the importance of learning and books in general. ‘It’s all about music, games and movies. Reading is for old people – the over 25s.’

She certainly didn’t want to be one of those demanding ‘tiger mums’, pushing and cajoling her kids to study 24/7, but the worry gnawed at her that she wasn’t home enough, or emotionally and physically available to them; that she didn’t support them enough with their schoolwork or encourage them to do more extracurricular clubs and events. But the reality was, her work was all-consuming.

Vaughn led her to the door. ‘You’re not going to find the girl by running yourself into the ground. Look after yourself. Manage, sleep, eat, don’t try to do it all by yourself.’

‘I will.’ Karin’s dismal stare all those years ago popped into her head once again; it was the look of a child who had been to hell and back. ‘I’m afraid for Sammi, Vaughn.’

‘I know you are,’ he told her.

‘I really need to bring her home safe and well.’