‘Anyway,’ Savannah went on. ‘This woman’s daughter had gone missing a few weeks ago. She just disappeared one morning. The mother’s devastated, of course. But today, she told me she had a call from her daughter, out of the blue. Romida, the girl was called. Is called, I should say. I used to know Romida. I’d see her around the camp. Shamshun – that’s the mother’s name – told me Romida had managed to call her. She had managed to get a phone from somewhere, God knows how. Romida was crying, Shamshun said. Romida couldn’t stop crying.’ Savannah’s voice dried up.

‘Where was she?’ asked Casey urgently.

‘Romida didn’t know where she was.’ Savannah’s words were tight. ‘She said a man had driven her, in the dark, for miles. She was tied up in the back of a van or something. With a blindfold, so she didn’t have any idea where she was. But now,’ Savannah hesitated, ‘she was in a big room, with some other women.’

‘And what?’ Casey said. ‘What was happening to Romida?’

‘Romida said she didn’t know what was going to happen to her,’ said Savannah. ‘Just that she was being held in this room. She said . . .’ Savannah paused, cleared her throat. ‘It sounded from what she described like they were doing medical tests on these women. Like you might do before IVF.’

Casey stared around her beautiful hotel room, at the hazy painting of a lake on the wall above her bed.

‘Did they say how?’ Casey kept her voice clipped.

‘The other women have told her that some of them have been inspected.’ Savannah took a second to answer. ‘Scanned. Blood taken. Someone gives them injections, over several days. At other times, they’re ordered to take tablets. Pessaries, sometimes. Then they’re taken off somewhere, and they don’t come back. It doesn’t seem like anything has happened to Romida, yet. But she may not have wanted to say to her mother.’

‘Oh Christ,’ said Casey. ‘How can . . .’

‘I don’t know.’ Savannah gave a long sigh, cleared her throat again. ‘Romida said they were fed well though. I suppose that is one thing they would do . . .’

‘How did the phone call end?’

‘Shamshun said Romida started crying. Shamshun was screaming at her, begging her to say where she was. But Romida just didn’t know. And then the phone . . . It just went dead.’

‘Did Romida say,’ Casey spoke fast, ‘how long she was in the van?’

‘She thought maybe six hours,’ said Savannah. ‘They stopped in a small street somewhere, and drugged her in the van. She woke up in a room with these other women.’

‘Could she hear anything outside the room? Were they in a city? Street noise? By a river? By the sea?’

‘I’ll ask Shamshun,’ said Savannah. ‘Tell her to ask this if Romida calls back. But I can’t imagine she will, if I’m honest.’