Now, finally, he looked at her. ‘But based on what my man there just tried to do, seems obvious they didn’t plan to get her back to you or let you go. So I did what I could to help. I can’t do any more. Didn’t want you holding your breath while the cops put the thumbscrews on me. Dom probably knows more. Maybe he will have a change of heart and call his girl. I don’t know. I hope so. I ain’t got a say in that. All I can say is this: I’m sorry.’

‘That doesn’t mean anything to me. It doesn’t get my daughter back.’

‘I was working at a scrapyard in Fatfield with my girl and she offered me the kidnap job. I don’t know who planned it, okay? I don’t know who’s calling the shots and I don’t know what any of this is about. But there’s a scrapyard in Northampton. Maybe your kid’s there. She’s not at the one in Fatfield. I don’t know of any other places.’

‘She’s not there. The police checked.’

‘I’m sorry. Look, I did this for the money, but no one was ever supposed to get hurt. We don’t know anything about you, so none of this was personal. They offered us £25,000 if we could snatch your kid and get this Forcefield. Like I told you, the kidnap was never about the money, we just needed to pretend it was a basic cash ransom thing, to distract the police. But when you decided to pay it… well, why not, eh? That’s what we thought. Why not? £50,000. Why not put a bit of extra work in and get a bigger payday? They said your dad was rich, so we thought he could easily afford to lose it. I never thought the kid would get hurt, and your dad could easily afford the ransom. So when you got her back, you yourself wouldn’t even be down any cash.’

‘And you thought I would be happy about that?’

He shrugged. ‘If I was that smart I’d be… Look, I hope you get her back.’

She got out.

He said one last thing: ‘Answer me one question. I need to know.’

She stopped with her hand on the door. If he wanted to know what was on the disk, what had caused all this, what his employers had wanted so badly that they would kidnap a child, then she was going to tell him, she realised. Murder, on video, which they wanted to make sure the world never saw. Hopefully, it would instil more regret in this man.

‘What’s your daughter’s name?’

She slammed the door in his face.

Seventeen