‘I like water voles. Some people call them water rats but they are not rats. They have got the wrong kind of tails for rats and they just live in the riverbank. There aren’t many in the Thames, because mink eat them. Do you want to see some pictures of otters?’

‘I’d love to,’ she said. This was going better than she dared hope.

He got out his phone and started to fiddle with it.

‘It would be good to see a nice big picture of an otter,’ she said.

Gary thought for a minute. ‘I have to tie you up again while I fetch my laptop.’

‘I have a better idea. Why don’t you take me into the house so I can see your laptop there?’

‘I’m not supposed to. You are supposed to stay in the shed.’

‘Who’s going to know? I certainly won’t tell.’

Gary considered her for a minute, sitting on the edge of the bed frame. One of his knees started to move rapidly up and down. A sign of stress or anxiety. She’d covered it on the mental health course.

‘If you keep tying me up and untying me like this you’re going to run out of cable ties.’

He shook his head. ‘I got a carton of 1,000 on eBay. Enough for a long time.’

‘I’d like not to be tied up. It hurts my wrists. Please.’ She gave him her most winning smile. It always worked with Anton.

He looked away and both his legs started to tap, tap, tap on the floor. He caught her looking at his oscillating knee.

‘Mum hates it when I do this. She says “Stop throstling, Gary, it’s doing my head in”.’

‘Throstling?’

‘It’s just her name for it. When I get nervous. With my legs.’

‘I don’t want to make you nervous, Gary. If I promised not to run away, would you untie me?’

He shook his head. ‘I can’t do that. Mum would be angry. She’s not well. I’m not to upset her. She shouts at me, and then gets out of breath. I hate it when she can’t breathe.’

Leticia realised she was trying to move too fast. ‘All right. Would you free my feet? Then I can walk in with you to see the pictures of the otters.’

He considered this for a long while, a frown deepening on his face.

‘We could look at some videos of otters on YouTube as well,’ Leticia said. ‘That would be fun.’

‘I’m not sure. I should phone Mum.’

‘She’ll say no, Gary. And she’ll be angry with you.’

He nodded. ‘I’ve got some good meerkat videos.’ He looked at Leticia quizzically. ‘Verity wouldn’t watch them with me.’

‘I will, Gary. I adore meerkats.’