Nick’s camera shuffled forward and his arm lifted the phone out of shot. The picture vibrated, but not because of a technical fault. Nick’s whole body was shaking.

‘Hello?’ Nick said. But there was no response.

‘His mic can’t pick it up,’ Miller said. ‘Everyone, get ready to move. This is it.’

The room got tense, but Anna was looking out the window again. Unable to bear listening to the showdown, Jane had opted to sit out in the garden, in the sun, and the Family Liaison Officer, probably bored because her social skills had been sidelined, had joined her. They were out there now, chatting away, and Anna stared, and then checked her watch, and wished Jane would damn well get away from her.

‘How are you, Nick?’

His stomach lurched. This was the man who’d taken Josie. And a man it definitely was, even though a woman had called Anna using a voice disguised as male. He’d been warned of the danger of antagonising this person, who could react excessively and destroy his world. But stress and fear had short-circuited the part of his brain in control of logic.

‘What kind of man takes a young girl? You break into my house and do this? You’re not human, you’re a damn animal, and if you hurt her it’ll be the last damn thing you ever regret. Where is she?’

In the living room, Nick’s words hit like a concussion wave. Anna turned from the window and felt light-headed. Jane gasped. Middleton yelled, ‘What the hell is that idiot doing?’

Bennet called for quiet, and they waited. Onscreen, even the fruit machine players captured by Nick’s bodycam had turned at his outburst and were captivated.

‘Under the Crazy Ninjas,’ the voice said.

Someone in the room asked what that meant, but the answer came moments later. Nick’s camera bounced towards the young man in a tracksuit, who darted aside as if out of the path of an avalanche. Nick’s arms grabbed the fruit machine.

‘Mobile phone,’ Bennet said as everyone watched Nick bend to pick up something from the carpet where the Crazy Ninjas fruit machine had stood. On a separate radio feed, the tech guy, who was near Bongo Bingo, announced he’d need time to grab the signal.

The moment Nick picked the phone up, it rang. As before, they heard him say hello. As before, it was all they heard. They waited.

And then he ran.

‘Well, Nick, I suddenly believe you about killing me, which means I’m now scared. You got me worrying you’ll get here and hurt me. Better I run now, eh? Better I bury your girl so she can’t tell the police anything and just run away to another country and pray you don’t find me.’