‘I don’t know. He doesn’t like us. I don’t like him being here.’

Nick said he needed water and went into the kitchen. He actually wanted alcohol, but stopped dead when he saw Middleton at the kitchen table, typing something on his BlackBerry while eating a McDonald’s burger. Unwilling to back away, he aimed for the sink and got a glass of water. Middleton ignored him until Nick was almost out the door.

‘You need to leave this for the police to sort out.’

Not the scolding he’d expected. Reckless, but perhaps his beef with the known paedophile had shown Middleton that he cared deeply about his daughter. Or maybe Middleton sensed that he was still worked up and ready to fight. He continued his journey out of the kitchen.

Bennet was at the living room doorway, also eating a McDonald’s burger. He jerked his head: come in. Nick entered, but Bennet left. Nobody else in the living room, but through the room divider he could see Anna and Miller sitting at the dining table. He went there. There were three McDonald’s bags full of meal trash, as if someone had gone out to fetch food for the detectives.

Miller got out of her chair as he appeared and indicated he should sit. Her eyes were droopy with tiredness. ‘It’s time I gave you both an update. Sit, please, Nick.’

Nick sat. He suspected that Bennet had relayed Nick’s frustration that not enough news was being shared.

‘First, we’ve spoken to your former colleague at Barker Land and Gardens, the one who was driving your old van in Sunderland yesterday afternoon. He’s clear, that chap. The Sunderland clue was nothing but a coincidence.’

Nick almost asked if they’d spoken to the school receptionist, who was from Sunderland. But that was just a coincidence, too. He simply nodded. Miller stood behind the couple, leaning between them to work the laptop. He caught her body odour.

The laptop showed a map of central England, focussing on Sheffield. Then a switch of Windows displayed a photograph of a littered, pockmarked road, something left to rot, and a grass verge before lock-up garages, one of which was cordoned off by police tape. Nick recognised where the police had found him. As Miller spoke, she cycled through various photographs of the area, some wide, to give perspective, others close, including of the bare interior, and then a close-up of the grass verge out front of it, and a close-up of one side of the metal doorframe.

‘Alfredon Lane, near Meadowhall, a couple of miles from here. The lock-up where you were found. Your phone, Nick, it was tracked by a cell tower near these garages not long before that text message was sent, and again not long afterwards. Now, no signal. We found tyre tracks in the grass. Not wide enough to be a van.’