‘Yes, it’s an absolutely gorgeous villa in the hills of Apulia. In fact there is a printout of the estate agent particulars on a coffee table.’

‘How much was the asking price?’

‘Just a tick,’ the officer said. Gillard heard the shuffling of papers. ‘One-point-three million.’

‘That was very indiscreet of her,’ Gillard said.

‘Was it? She said that it was a thirtieth anniversary present from her husband last October, who had been saving up for this moment for decades. She is absolutely devastated that all their dreams might be shattered.’

Gillard thanked her and hung up. The Amersham house might be worth a million at a push, but it wasn’t up for sale. The balances from the other accounts he could see didn’t quite add up to the kind of money required for that villa. Could Arrowsmith have got a loan? Perhaps. While waiting for Shireen, he examined the photographs taken at the Arrowsmiths’ home and the list of electronic items taken away. While the search history on the various computers had not yet been examined, the passwords to Arrowsmith’s personal email accounts had been noted. According to the log, Thames Valley Police had examined those going back a month, and found nothing relating to the abduction. Gillard decided to have a look further into the past. There were thousands of emails, and he only really had time to judge by the subject lines, which proved Kelvin Arrowsmith had been heavily involved in the purchase of the property. He spent an hour and found nothing incriminating. Frustrated, he decided to take a very quick scan through Francesca Arrowsmith’s account.

Just as he was about to log off he struck gold, in a completely different direction.

There was an online receipt for an Apple smartwatch bought last October. It was a fancier version of the one that Gillard had bought for Sam for her birthday, and he knew it had a GPS tracker on it. It could well have been an anniversary present for Arrowsmith, and if he had been wearing it at the time of the abduction, they might be able to trace him. Gillard rang the liaison officer again, asked her to find out if the watch was indeed bought for Arrowsmith, and if so could she get hold of the unique product ID which should be with the paperwork.

Ten minutes later Gillard had all the information he needed to approach Apple.