Then he remembered he couldn’t receive, only transmit. The tiny camera sewn into the inside of his T-shirt, his connection to so many protectors, no longer felt like a lifeline. As the train left the station, it became a raft sending him far out to sea. He thumped his chest to try to restore rhythmic breathing. He’d never felt so alienated, or lost, or helplessly weak.

‘Anna,’ he croaked into air, ‘if you’re listening, I love you. I love this family and I’m going to put it back together. I’m going to get her back if it’s the last thing I do. I promise.’

‘I have to get some air. I can’t listen to this.’

‘You can’t go out, Mrs Carter. Not yet.’

‘I need air.’ Anna grabbed her jacket from the peg. ‘I’m not under arrest. I’m going to see a friend across the road. I can’t be here, listening to that.’ That was the commotion in the living room as detectives scrambled to make sense of what had just happened.

DC Ella Hicks, standing in the hallway, said, ‘Nobody should go out. Not yet. Not until we know what’s happened.’

‘Let me tell you what’s happened,’ Anna said as she threw her jacket on. ‘You people failed. My little lady is gone, and I’m not about to sit and listen to you people run around like headless chickens.’

‘But what about your husband? He’ll need you here when he gets back.’

Both women heard the living room patio door open, and then raised voices as Jane learned the bad news. She started calling for Anna. Anna quickly opened the front door and darted through.

Moving faster than she should have, and holding her belly to stop it wobbling, Hicks got past her on the path and put up her hand. That clear and universal gesture again. This time it got the recognisable obscene one Anna had avoided offering earlier.

The friend across the road was Mr Parker, a middle-aged man in a wheelchair courtesy of a fall from his roof while tiling. Just before he opened the door to her knock, Anna glanced back to see the young DC in her garden, looking like she couldn’t decide what to do.

‘Anna? You okay?’

Hicks went back inside. Anna turned to Mr Parker, who asked if Nick was okay, if there was trouble, what the police were doing here, and if there was anything he could do to help. Thankful that the street didn’t know about the kidnap yet, she quickly invented a story.