Strangely, she hated Nick in that moment, for giving her useless hope. For not being the man who took her daughter. Because the nightmare continued. Josie was still missing. And nobody knew where she was.

‘Thinking? What was I thinking? There were nearly thirteen hundred child abductions last year, and most of those were girls for sexual abuse. So have a guess what I was thinking?’

Bennet had been sent to collect Nick. No explanation for the responders and the off-duty officer, who’d been left clueless after their prisoner was taken out of handcuffs, out of a police car, and whisked away in the DS’s vehicle.

‘You’re lucky you didn’t hit him. I’d feel quite bad arresting someone whose daughter got kidnapped.’

‘I haven’t hit anyone since I was at college. It was a scare. I just wanted to… I felt someone should talk to this guy, that’s all. So I did your job for you.’

‘We’ve already got people looking at all the registered sex offenders in the area.’ Bennet watched him in the rear-view mirror. ‘It was the first thing we did. This guy was cleared while you were still in the police station. How did you learn about him?’

‘Someone outed him at a neighbourhood meeting for something a few months back. Everyone around our way knows about him. And if you people told us more about what you’re doing, we wouldn’t be out here. But how do you know he’s clear?’

‘You’ll get information as soon as we get it, Nick. But you’re waiting on positive news that moves us forward, aren’t you? Not useless information like leads that went nowhere. In regard to the man back there, he has no car, no contacts, and every single one of his neighbours blanks him. He gets spat on in the street. It’s why he holes himself up in a secure residence. That’s the life some of these people live, once they’re burned. He was the only one you knew of?’

‘That’s not proof. Where was he last night? How do you know he hasn’t got a prepaid phone hidden?’

‘He’s on the sex offenders register. Every time there’s a report of some child being so much as flashed, we knock on that guy’s door. He’s been cleared. Trust me.’

Nick scoffed. ‘This quick? How many of those sick bastards live within fifty miles of me? There were nearly ten thousand sexual assaults on girls under thirteen in 2018. That’s a lot of predators. You cleared them all already?’

‘I didn’t say that. But that guy’s cleared. We’re on it, okay? We’ve been playing at this police lark quite a while and we kind of know what we’re doing.’

‘How many others are there? Where are they?’