Nicky was in a bed in a private room, and would remain there for a couple of nights at least. She was suffering from exhaustion, and dehydration, and there was a nasty ring of bruises around her neck, as well as a bump the size of a tennis ball on the back of her head. Zack may not have wanted her dead, but he’d made sure she would remain unconscious long enough to allow him to move her from the house in the docks to the shelter in Blackhawk without any chance of her waking up. He’d locked her in the derelict section of the building with no food or water, and although Nicky had already made it perfectly clear that she didn’t want Fleet – or anyone – making a fuss, the reality was she probably wouldn’t have survived another day if they hadn’t got to her when they did. Apart from anything, it seemed patently obvious that when Zack had set his stage at Beaconsfield, he’d had no intention of coming back.

‘I feel like such an idiot,’ Nicky was saying. Her voice remained croaky, and the doctor had warned her to limit how much she tried to talk.

Fleet passed her the cup of ice chips one of the nurses had left for her.

‘We chatted,’ Nicky went on, disgustedly. ‘Zack actually told me to my face how much he hated Richardson. I even flirted with him a bit, because I thought I could get him to help me.’ She shook her head, and winced at the pain it seemed to cause her. ‘And then I trailed him around the building like a puppy, for pity’s sake, and all the while Melissa was locked up in the same place you found me.’

When their colleagues had searched the disused part of Shining Light more thoroughly, they’d seen clear evidence that Nicky wasn’t the first person Zack had kept imprisoned there. Although they would never know for sure, it seemed likely that Zack had abducted Melissa at some point after he’d settled on his plan, which began with the anonymous message to the police. He’d told Fleet that Melissa had refused to help him, but whatever had happened between them, it was clear Zack needed her out of the way. He’d supplied her with heroin, perhaps as a way to keep her compliant, and also to get her to cooperate when he used her to lure Nicky to the docks. As well as the fresh track marks Randy had spotted on Melissa’s body, there’d been needles and various other paraphernalia on the floor in the room where she’d apparently been held.