‘I don’t know what I’ll do without Sandra,’ Birley said, as the detectives prepared to leave.

‘We don’t know that your wife is dead, Mr Birley,’ said Hitchens.

‘What? You think he might be keeping her prisoner somewhere?’

‘It’s quite possible. Until we know one way or the other, we’re keeping an open mind.’

Birley had begun to look hopeful. But now he dropped his eyes again.

‘You’re just saying that. You’ll find her dead, won’t you? You know you will. Why else would he have snatched her from that car park?’

‘Until that happens, we can still hope for the best, sir.’

As soon as he’d spoken, Fry remembered having said something similar quite recently. But she couldn’t quite recall when and where.

Detective Chief Inspector Oliver Kessen leaned against the side of the crime scene van and thrust his hands into his pockets. ‘Well, this place must be dead overnight,’ he said. ‘Do many people leave vehicles in here until morning?’

Fry assumed that the DCI was talking to her, though he gave no sign of it. Scenes of crime had almost finished with Sandra Birley’s Skoda, and were moving away along the retaining wall towards the ramps.

‘Very few,’ said Fry. ‘It’s too expensive.’

She looked around for Ben Cooper to get confirmation.

‘This is a shoppers’ car park,’ he said. ‘It’s meant for short stay. But some of the office workers use it, if they need to. The other parking facilities get full.’

‘That’s what Mr Birley told us, too,’ added Fry.

Kessen kept his eye on the Skoda, as if it might do something. Perhaps he expected it to crack open its bonnet and make a confession.

‘The attacker must have known it would be empty by that time.’

Fry nodded, though she knew Kessen wouldn’t see her gesture. He’d barely looked at her yet.

‘Yes, he certainly seems to have known his way around. There are eleven CCTV cameras in here – one on each level, and two at the entrance and exit. But he must have known exactly where they were, because none of them seem to have caught him, so far as we can tell from the attendant.’

One of the SOCOs, Liz Petty, glanced over towards them and smiled. Fry thought she’d found something significant, but she went back to dusting the edge of the wall near Sandra Birley’s car. Elsewhere, DI Hitchens was supervising a search on the stairs and in the lift, followed by the concrete parking bays between them and the car. The whole of Level 8 had been sealed off, which meant no one could reach the roof level of the car park either. Apart from the Skoda, the only vehicles here now belonged to the police team.

‘Just one attendant?’ said Kessen.

‘At that time of night, yes. He has a little office on the first level, and he monitors the cameras from there.’

‘Someone will have to go through every bit of footage.’

‘Yes, sir.’