‘Stopped outside a residential block near the Fat Cat. I’ve pulled in a hundred metres back. No movement, though. He’s just sitting there. There’s a guy in the passenger seat.’

‘Who does Nick know there? That area of the Kelham Island Quarter is an industrial zone. He’s picked someone up and now he seems to be awaiting something. What’s he doing there?’

Because of Miller’s alien abrupt tone, it took Anna a moment to realise she was the target of those questions. Her answer to all: I don’t know. But her hopes that Josie could be found very soon were rising.

‘Some kind of works pick-up truck just arrived. Turning in. Yeah, it’s pulled up next to the target car.’

The off-duty guy relayed the registration, and Bennet hauled his radio to get on to base for a trace. Everyone waited. A minute in:

‘IC1 male exited the pick-up. And a woman’s exited the residential block. McDonald’s uniform. Now they’re all out. Approaching her. Might be this woman… hang on.’

‘Nothing outstanding on the pick-up,’ Bennet announced. ‘Registered to Barker Land and Gardens. Nick’s old company. Waiting for info on that address.’

Someone Nick worked with? She felt her heart rate go through the roof. A friend of Nick’s, which looked good. He would want people he knew to help if he—

‘It’s not the woman. They went past her. Inside the block of flats now. Looks like they waited for someone to open the security door.’

Anna pushed away from the wall on legs covered in goosepimples, and took a step closer, towards that phone. If Nick was involved in the kidnap, he wouldn’t want Josie to be hurt, or uncomfortable, and so he would want his daughter to be in a nice place – like a flat in a residential block. And he would want to show her a known face here and there. She willed that radio to blast the air with good news.

‘Could this really be the end of it?’

That question from Anna turned all heads. Jane moved towards her – ‘Annie, please, you shouldn’t listen to this, let me take you to the bedroom’ – but her reaching hands were pushed away – ‘I’m fine. It’s okay.’

‘Responder teams have just arrived,’ Bennet said. ‘Ready to go in. I’ve ordered radios on open.’

‘Two pandas just turned in. So this is something big. I’m off-duty, remember, but I want in. Are we taking this guy, or what? Can I ask what he’s done?’