The financial order requested by Gillard was broader than the one already in force from Hampshire Constabulary. It covered not only Kelvin Arrowsmith’s own bank accounts but those of his wife for the past year. In Gillard’s experience a man engaged in financial skulduggery would often use the accounts of his wife or even his kids to hide illicit funds. It just made sense to draw the net as widely as possible. The details that came back showed nothing to attract attention – at first. Gillard copied in Shireen Corey Williams, and agreed to split the work so that he looked through the most recent month in detail, while she gave a quick scan to the older transactions and the couple’s savings accounts. There had been no cash card withdrawals and no significant credit card spending from either of them in the last couple of weeks. On the day of the abduction the only transactions were a few small contactless payments made by Francesca Arrowsmith.

Gillard rang Shireen to see what she had discovered. ‘There’s a couple of interesting things,’ she said. ‘There is a movement of one-point-two million pounds into their joint savings account nine months ago, which was transferred out again in euros two days later from her current account. Then another payment of one-hundred-thousand from the same source just a month ago, which was again transferred in euros.’

‘Those are interestingly large sums of money,’ Gillard said.

‘Well, they could be buying a property abroad. It doesn’t have to be illicit.’

‘True. But that’s one substantial property. Perhaps you can investigate the source of the funds and the payee abroad.’

‘I’ve got the IBAN codes, so I can get the banks making the payment, but that might only be half the story.’

‘Okay. If they are buying a Spanish villa or something it would probably show up on their web search history, so I’ll get Rob Townsend to take a look when he finally gets a moment. I’m going to ring Francesca Arrowsmith and ask her.’

Gillard hung up, and rang the landline at the Arrowsmith home in Amersham. It was answered by Family Liaison Officer Soraya Shah from Thames Valley Police, who said they had been peppered with press calls since news of the abduction emerged. Gillard asked her if she was within hearing of Mrs Arrowsmith. She wasn’t.

‘Has Mrs Arrowsmith said who she thinks might have done this?’

‘No, sir. She has no idea. She’s absolutely distraught.’

‘Understandable. Have you heard her talk about plans to move abroad?’

‘Oh yes. She kept telling me, especially in the first few hours, that it was their dream to retire to southern Italy. They had travelled there for many years, and bought a place last year.’

‘Did she show you any photographs of it?’