“You manufactured the accident; you distracted him; then you planted the coke in his car.”

“No, I didn’t.”

“What do you think we’ll find when the police analyse the coke? You know each batch can be traced back to its source, don’t you? Like a fingerprint. I mean, John, you wouldn’t be so dumb as to use the coke that you bought from López to set up López’s biggest customer, would you?”

“I don’t know,” he said, very aware of the cold metal pressed hard against his forehead, “but it seems to me that Jackson got caught with cocaine he bought from the cartel. I bought cocaine from the cartel, too. They probably will match. What’s that going to prove?”

The man pushed harder, forcing Milton’s head back against the slats of the chair. Milton closed his eyes, wondering if he had pressed him too far, or whether his bluffs had not been persuasive enough, but instead of pulling the trigger, the man removed the pistol and stepped back.

“Hold him down.”

The man backed away. The other two stepped up and put their hands on Milton’s shoulders, securing him in place. The Scandinavian took a phone from his pocket and held it out in front of him; the flash popped as he took a picture and then another.

“Give me his hand.”

Milton was bent forward so that they could get to his shackled wrists. The restraints were removed and one of the men grabbed Milton’s right wrist and held it out. Milton wondered whether they were going to break a finger or pull out a nail, but, since there was no point in resisting, he didn’t. The Scandinavian took a device from his pocket: a small plastic oblong, about the size of a credit card and a centimetre deep. It was matte black with a screen in the centre and an optical reader right at the top. The man took Milton’s index finger and pressed it against the reader. The machine bleeped, and the man repeated the process for the rest of his fingers and his thumb, then pressed a button on the display and put the machine back into his pocket.

“I’m going to be watching you,” he said. “You give me even the smallest reason to doubt you, and I’m going to end you.”

Milton nodded.