‘Yes, money! Of course money. Olsen might have been a twisted pervert but I told you he was making a lot of money servicing other twisted perverts. Which meant he could pay people to help him, pay them well. The fact that this woman’s motivation was only financial makes her the worst of the lot of them in my eyes. These other men were working off a compulsion at least.’

‘My daughter’s life is ruined … She could be dead. One of the doctors said she should be dead, like it was some miracle we still have her. We’ve been warned that Callie might not come back like we remember. She might never be the same again. A couple of times I’ve found myself wondering if she could have been better off dying. How can I think like that?’ Danny was voicing his thoughts, trying to put all the pieces in place in his mind.

‘Because you might be right. No matter what happens from here on in, none of your lives will be the same again; not your wife, not your son and certainly not Callie. She didn’t deserve this; your family didn’t deserve this. This woman has ruined your family, ruined your life. This may feel like you’re being forced into doing something you don’t want to do today but if you don’t, if you walk away from this, ten years from now this meeting will still be playing heavy on your heart. You will regret not taking this chance.’

‘Because I’ll be in prison! You’ll make sure of that.’

‘I will. But even if you were at home with your family, entirely back to normal – if there is such a thing – it would make no difference. You’ll always have this niggle in the back of your mind, you’ll always wonder what this woman is doing, what other families are going through because of her.’

‘You’re good at this.’ Danny sniffed. He fixed on a distant bright light. A cargo ship – and a long way out to sea. From this distance it just looked like a long grey slab balanced tentatively on the horizon.

‘At what?’

‘Making murder seem like a good idea.’

The man chuckled, and Danny clenched his jaw at his carefree attitude.

‘This job will do that to you. I made good money when I was legit. I found a lot of fraudsters, retrieved a lot of money and I was paid a good percentage for doing it. But I rarely felt anything. It was always just a job. What I do now, the money’s sporadic, never as good, but it makes a difference. It’s good work; important. I never considered I might find something important enough to make murder a good idea.’