‘Are you sure?’ she said. ‘They have protocols for these situations. At least, I assume they do. When I work with them at the hospital – if there’s been an incident where lives are in danger – they always have methods and systems to deal with it. They would keep it confidential.’

‘What if they can’t?’ Matt said. ‘That’s what the messages say. The kidnapper will know.’

‘I think you’re right,’ Mike said. ‘At this point anyway. No police. They might not be happy to stay in the background. They might show up here or where the car was taken from. And then there’ll be no hiding their involvement. We can’t scare the kidnapper away. They’re the only link to the kids.’

Annabelle listened in silence. The messages had been clear. Crystal clear. I will start sending pieces of them to you.

She closed her eyes. Somewhere out there her children – her babies – were in the care, if you could call it that, of a man – or woman – who had threatened to cut pieces off them and send them to their parents.

And who had also said no police.

I will know.

It could have been a lie, a way to make them fear the consequences of involving the authorities.

Or it could be true. Maybe the kidnapper had a contact in the police, or another way of knowing. Plus, like Tessa said, there was no guarantee that the police would do what she and Matt asked them to do.

And then she would never see her children again, which was unbearable.

‘No,’ she said. ‘We’re not telling them. I’m not putting the kids in danger.’

Tessa nodded slowly. ‘Then what do we do?’

‘I don’t know,’ Annabelle said. ‘But not that.’

‘Are you going to tell Dad?’ Mike said.

‘No,’ Annabelle said. ‘It’d only upset him.’

‘I guess so,’ Mike said. ‘He’s living with me now, and he’s getting pretty frail.’

‘You brought him back from the care home?’ Tessa said.

‘Yeah.’ Mike shrugged. ‘Could be unnecessary, but with this new virus, I thought it was best.’ He came to the couch and hugged Annabelle tight. ‘This is a mess,’ he said. ‘But we’ll sort it out. Don’t you worry. We’ll sort it out.’

The words were comforting, and she wanted to believe them, but she didn’t. She didn’t believe them at all.

They will be at the fear and panic stage now. That idiot husband of hers will be thinking how powerless and useless he is. It is probably a familiar feeling for him.

He’ll be wondering who would possibly go to all this trouble just to get Annabelle, thinking through all the possibilities, all the people he knows and all the people he’s met. Anyone, anyone at all who might fit the bill.