‘But he did hunt for her, didn’t he, Andy? He did follow her around, desperately searching for his son.’ Marie looked at him earnestly. ‘People have told us that he swore he’d find them. And you said yourself that he’d changed.’

Andy nodded slowly. ‘Yes, he did. And he swore he’d have his revenge. Several times he came close to finding her, once in a hostel and another time when they were staying with someone. But she always managed to get away. Then he went quiet, and I’ve never seen or heard from him since. Like I said, his phone no longer even registers.’ He looked down at the table. ‘I did try. I did all I could to reason with him. I begged him to let the authorities deal with it, go the legal route. I warned him that if he hurt her, he’d never get his son back. But he insisted on doing it his way.’

‘There’s something that’s bothered us from the start,’ said Jackman. ‘Jordan’s revenge has extended to people who either helped Claire to get away from him or who were closely involved with his son in some way. How on earth did Jordan know who these people were? Was someone helping him? Maybe someone she knew and trusted was surreptitiously feeding back information to him.’

Andy looked up. ‘It’s a lot simpler than that, DI Jackman. Christopher told him. Before the mother stole him, Jordan had given the boy a second mobile phone. It was their secret, and it only had his number in it. He’d told Christopher to use it only if he were in trouble or frightened by something. Jordan never rang him, it would have been too risky, but he’d asked Christopher to contact him sometimes.’

Marie groaned. ‘I never considered that. I thought the boy believed that his mother was trying to protect him from an abusive father.’

‘You have to realise that Christopher was very disturbed, very introverted,’ Andy said. ‘I swear he didn’t understand half of what was going on, but despite the lies his mother told him, the boy still loved his father.’ He smiled sadly. ‘Jordan had hidden the phone in the boy’s teddy bear, and even at the age of ten, he carried the teddy bear everywhere.’

‘Teddy.’ Marie sighed. ‘What a dreadful life for a child.’

‘And now we have no idea if he’s dead or alive,’ added Jackman.

There was a knock on the door and a uniformed constable handed Jackman a note. Jackman read it and immediately stiffened. ‘I have to go, Mr Forman. Marie will continue your talk. And thank you so much for coming forward.’ He turned to her and in a low voice said, ‘It’s Laura. She’s been attacked by a patient. She’s on her way to A & E.’