Then added: ‘So, I repeat, remove such thoughts from your skull. Now back to you, Nick. I don’t like you being out there. You can’t be thinking straight, okay? If you’re not coming on home, then I want you to tread carefully.’

And then she was gone, leaving him replaying her final sentence in his head. She could have ordered the police to return him to Sheffield, but she hadn’t. Instead, she’d warned him to be careful. As if she knew he was on a mission… and was permitting it. Maybe even condoning it.

Miller’s information, and her warning, had him straddling a fence, unable to pick a side. Were Eastman and his wife victims too, like Anna? Were they connected at all?

Still a little spellbound by this latest scene in his life, Nick handed the mobile back to the police officer. He still half-expected to be arrested for car theft, but instead he was told to have a good day and to watch his speed, then left alone out there.

He did neither.

After what seemed like hours stuffed into the floor of the car, with the man’s stinking feet on her back and rock music pounding her head, and sometimes his voice telling her things, she felt a slowing, and a turning to the left. The constant speed and lack of outside sound had told her they were on the motorway, heading south she knew. But no more. They were turning off. Her heart vibrated like crazy with mixed emotions, because they had promised her something, and this could be it, but also because it could all have been a lie.

A minute later there was another turn, to the right this time, which made her worry they were hitting the motorway again. But the car slowed, made another couple of sharp turns, and then she felt the light dim slightly, as if they’d gone under a bridge.

‘Up,’ Ball Cap said.

She sat, wincing against the daylight because she’d had her face buried in Josie’s pyjamas for so long, even though it was subdued.

In the driver’s seat, Dominic turned to look at her. It was the first time he had really shown his face, and she had been dreading the moment in case he recognised her through the extra wrinkles and fat on her face. But she surprised herself by glaring him dead in the eye. She failed to spot something familiar in his features. He was the same only in name. Even that had changed for Anna.

He failed, too. She could see it right there in his eyes: not a hint of recognition, for which she was glad. But, fearful that his brain would make a connection in the next few seconds, she lowered her eyes to his throat. And wished she hadn’t.