Gillard smiled to himself. ‘I can see why. “To lose one water engineer may be regarded as a misfortune, but to lose two looks like carelessness”.’

‘Eh?’

‘Lady Bracknell in The Importance of Being Earnest. Did it at school about a million years ago.’ Gillard was always surprised at the useless things he remembered.

‘She wrote about water engineers?’ Nowak asked, incredulously. ‘We didn’t cover this book in my school in Warsaw.’

Gillard laughed. ‘No. Never mind. Look, are we able to interview Francesca Arrowsmith yet?’

‘No, she’s in no state. Leave it an hour or two.’

‘Okay, I’ll take a look at the car then.’ Gillard thanked Nowak and returned to his vehicle. It was a short drive to the edge of the built-up area, rural homes giving way to horse paddocks. A left turn led to a dead-end serving a couple of meadows. There in the gateway of one field was the smouldering wreck of the Range Rover, next to a fire tender and surrounded by half a dozen firemen. If a getaway vehicle had made tyre tracks, these had certainly now been expunged by the presence of a large fire appliance, and the thousands of gallons of water from a nearby hydrant that had been used to extinguish the fire.

The acrid stench of burned plastic in his nostrils, Gillard returned to his car, put on the aircon and rang Hoskins at Mount Browne. The nearest ANPR camera was a mile away, but would have been hard to avoid for anyone coming from the motorways. ‘There are a couple of things I’d like you to do for me, Carl. I want to know if any of the Tickett’s vehicles triggered a particular ANPR camera in Amersham yesterday.’ He gave the location of the camera. ‘See if you can get a triangulation of any of their phones since six this evening.’

He couldn’t imagine the Willow women getting involved in an abduction, but the Tickett family was a different matter. Maybe they hadn’t been paid for the work they did for Aqua Western. It might fit quite well with Ozzy Blanchard’s fear.

Carl Hoskins had no sooner put down the phone to his boss when it rang again. It was Ray Slater, his former brother-in-law.

‘I need another favour, Carl.’

‘Jesus, Ray, give me a break.’

‘I heard that someone at Aqua Western has been abducted.’

‘How d’you hear that?’

‘Never mind.’

‘It’s Thames Valley Police, you know that, don’t you? Not us.’

‘No problem, you can say you’re digging for details on Gillard’s behalf.’

‘Sorry, Ray. I really can’t, not this time.’

‘All I need to know is who it is.’

‘I can’t tell you, Ray. News blackout. Can’t even give you the location.’

‘Is it Arrowsmith?’

‘No comment.’

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. ‘Carl. I can pay. A significant sum, honestly mate…’