I’m not on a boat as I’d thought I was.

The muffled voices are becoming clearer. My senses finally more alert.

How long have I been here?

I tilt my head left, then right – slowly, so the pain doesn’t make me pass out again. It’s not pitch black; I can see an illumination of some kind from a window above me.

A car window. I’m on the floor of a car – wedged between the front and rear seats from what I can feel. Pushing my feet downwards, I release some of my weight from my arms. They were numb, but now a searing heat spreads through them – the blood suddenly free to circulate again. A painful tingling replaces the numbness. I bite down on my bottom lip.

Don’t make a sound.

I have to lower my weight back down on them again, but I’ve been able to shift my arms a little, so they aren’t completely trapped.

Unlike me.

Right, come on, Barb, think.

My abductor bundled me into a car, tied my hands, but didn’t gag me, or put a blindfold on. That’s got to be good news. Amateur?

This doesn’t seem like a random attack. They were waiting for me.

They need me for something.

I dread to think what.

Every muscle in my old body screams out in protest at being in this position. I could try to flip myself on my side, maybe even sit up a little.

If I can even find the strength.

A voice comes closer.

I freeze, listening intently. It’s familiar.

Nick. Oh, thank God – Nick is here.

Relief floods my senses.

He’ll save me; he’s here to save his mum.

But who’s the man he’s speaking to? Who did this to me?

‘You need to know,’ the voice says. ‘There’s a story to be told, and you have to hear it. It has to be you, Nicholas.’

Nicholas?

I know that voice. Now I know who took me.

And I know why.

I can’t suppress the groan as it escapes my dry lips.

The truth is going to come out and I’m literally powerless to prevent it.

Chapter Eighty-Nine

Amber

Nick obviously got my message, then. I see his car positioned along the hedgerow of the lane leading to the Old Church House Inn. The pub closed several months ago. We pass by it and Richard manoeuvres his car into the small, abandoned car park. There’s only two streetlights: one just before where Nick left his car, and one centrally positioned within the car park itself. There are several security-type lights, though, situated around the pub.