‘Hah, you would think that,’ said the woman sardonically. ‘Although it’s not like he actually does eff all.’

‘Is he here right now?’

‘Yeah.’ She jerked a thumb. ‘You can usually find him in the bar.’

The tables outside the park’s social club were crammed with semi-naked people with burned shoulders, who watched curiously over their pints as Sasha and Craig walked past in their jackets and long trousers – she felt very hot and overdressed – and into the bar. Stephen Gosling sat at a table near the toilets, sipping a pint of lager in a tee-shirt cut off at the arms, a pair of cargo shorts and heavy boots.

‘Stephen Gosling?’ Sasha sat on the stool opposite him and pushed a second half-empty pint glass to the side. ‘I’m Detective Inspector Sasha Dawson and this is my colleague, Detective Constable Power. You probably don’t remember me, but we met a number of years ago.’

He blinked at her, and then glanced up at Craig, who leaned with his arms folded against a fruit machine. ‘How you doing?’

‘It’s scorchio out there.’ Sasha blew sharply upwards and her damp fringe lifted limply off her forehead. ‘I hope you’re wearing sunscreen.’

He gave her a nasty smile, his gaze drifting behind her. ‘What have I done?’

‘Stephen Gosling,’ she told him. ‘I am arresting you for kidnapping. You do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court.Anything you do say may be given in evidence. Do you understand?’

‘Oh, come on,’ he said very loudly, and his eyes darted over her shoulder again. ‘I’m being arrested?’

‘Stand up please, Stephen.’ She nodded at Craig, who took out a pair of handcuffs.

Gosling pushed his drink away, and stood quickly, ‘Let’s go, then, and get this over with.’ Sasha saw his eyes flick urgently past her again as he held out his wrists to be cuffed.

‘You’re keen, Stephen, and speaking very loudly.’

‘Come on, I haven’t got all day,’ he said, just as she heard the blast of a hand-dryer.

She nodded at the second glass on the table. ‘Did we interrupt anything?’

The door of the men’s toilets behind her opened and a man stepped out. Davey Jenkins stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Sasha and Craig.

‘Good morning.’ She hoped he would immediately see sense, but Jenkins looked around wildly. ‘Davey, don’t—’