Janice was already in the interview room when McNab arrived. ‘How’d it go with the boss?’ she said.

‘Good,’ he said. ‘I’ve asked for the girl to be brought in first.’

She was small and slightly built. Pretty too. McNab could see why she would have been offered the original job with Go Wild in Ibiza. She began her story there, explaining in some detail what she thought happened at the parties. She gave the locations they were held in and names of the chief organizers, plus the fact that she’d realized after a while that the women involved had likely been trafficked.

‘And you?’ McNab had interrupted her at that point. ‘Were you there of your own free will?’

‘Initially, yes, but it became apparent after a short time that quitting the job wouldn’t be easy.’

They moved then to her post on the first boat. ‘It was made clear,’ she said, ‘that I no longer had a choice where I went.’

She gave details of the luxury yacht Hibiscus, which had cruised the Med, occasionally docking in the south of France or on the north coast of Africa. ‘Clients were all male and very wealthy, many of them from the Middle East. Sex parties. Some of the women I saw arrive, I didn’t see leave.’

She bent her head at this point, surreptitiously wiping her eyes.

Finally, they came to the Orlova. McNab had been in no hurry, knowing that he would have likely formed an opinion of Nadia by the time they got there. The two earlier locations could be checked to see if they were still in operation, but if deaths had happened there, it would be difficult to prove.

The Orlova was different.

Neither Ava nor Nadia was aware of the video footage they had of the fight and its finale. As far as Nadia knew, she was the only witness left alive to what had occurred on board that night.

‘Tell us what happened on the Orlova,’ Janice said.

Nadia gathered herself as though about to recall a nightmare. ‘We were somewhere in the Atlantic when two guests came aboard. A man and a woman.’

‘How were they brought to the ship?’

‘By helicopter.’ She hesitated. ‘We were housed in containers on deck. Sometimes we would see arrivals from there.’

‘Go on,’ Janice said.

‘There was another arrival, later on. A man, who I’d seen before. In fact, he recognized me from the Hibiscus. He took me to their room and introduced me.’ She was looking increasingly uncomfortable.

‘Why?’

‘They offered us as extras, if required.’

‘You took part in some of the games?’

‘We had no choice.’ Her face darkened.

‘What was this man’s name?’

‘He went by the name Hugo. I don’t know if that was his first or last name.’

‘Tell us what happened that night.’