Ads come on and Cain mutes the TV. ‘I agree with you. It’s gutter journalism to make a story out of nothing. The sooner they figure out who has the footage, the better. We just need to hunker down until that happens or wait for everyone to just –’ he flings his hand, ‘get over it and bugger off. It’s probably just sickos in another country trying to keep the story going.’ He goes to the kitchen and makes a protein shake. His bicep tenses as he rocks the shaker in his hand. ‘We could squash this, we could clear our names and show them all we are normal people.’

‘They know the truth,’ I say, frustrated. ‘They’ve all seen the footage of me chained up, you in a stupor. That man coming in. He looks straight at the camera, you can see him looking up at it, he knew it was there. He installed them. Anyone who can’t see that needs their eyes checked.’

‘I know, I fully understand that, but most people, regular people, probably don’t. We can get a PR person to help us,’ Cain says.

We’ve missed part of the interview, Cain unmutes the TV and their voices come back.

‘And you have other news?’

The couple, grinning now, share a look. ‘We got engaged last week in Queenstown which made it better.’

The woman holds her ring out.

The presenter gushes, squinting so her crow’s feet fan out, but her forehead is rigor mortis. ‘I’m pleased to hear things took a turn for the better later in your trip.’

I blurt. ‘They didn’t even know anything about the cameras when they stayed! They gave us a good review.’

‘So has this whole experience changed your opinion about New Zealand?’

‘Well,’ the woman begins. ‘You think it’s this nice, friendly place where nothing bad happens. But then bad things do happen here. There are bad people everywhere, even in the most beautiful places. But we would come back.’

‘Definitely,’ the man adds.

‘I’m glad to hear.’

The show switches to the next story

‘Now that should piss off a bunch of Kiwis.’ Cain scoffs. ‘Tap into that jingoism, make them think this will hurt our global image or cost tourism dollars. We’ve got to fight back, Lina. Set the record straight.’

He turns away from the TV, and ambles from the room.

I can hear my phone chime upstairs. I assume it’s a concerned friend wanting to check in. Watching the program about us, discreetly mining gossip. After Skelton’s death the NZSAS were all painted as brutes by the media – a boys’ club killing indiscriminately in Afghanistan. So why does Cain trust them now?