She looked confused now, reliving the moment, seeing shapes join with the darkness and disappear, but not knowing exactly what she was watching.

‘I … I was worried about her. I tried to follow them … I couldn’t see where I was going very well. All I could see was a torch up ahead, and sometimes not even that. I never knew exactly where they stopped. I couldn’t risk them knowing I was there. I gave up and went back to my car, nearly got lost on the way, but I made it, just.’

‘Wait a minute,’ said Porter. ‘What about Natasha? What about the tree? How did you find the tree?’

She shook her head and spoke slowly. ‘I don’t know where they took her, Detective.’

He leant in closer still, words somewhere between a whisper and a hiss. ‘Why did you go to that tree? Are you honestly trying to tell me I won’t find her there? Cos if you are, I’m not buying it.’

‘You think I wanted to leave her out there, with them? God only knows what they did to the poor girl, but if they’d found me there … Do you honestly think the fact I’m Alexander’s wife means that there wouldn’t be any consequences? If you do, then you don’t know men like these.’

‘So let’s assume for a minute I decide to believe you, what the hell does the tree have to do with any of this?’

‘Part of me thought I’d dreamt it when I woke up the next day. I rang her, tried going round: nothing. I went back to the woods the day after. I tried to remember where they went, I found the last place I could remember, that part where the paths cross.’

Porter assumed she meant that five-way nexus they had followed her through earlier.

‘From there I just couldn’t … it was impossible. I kept losing the path, imagining I was going to trip across her just lying there.’ She closed her eyes, gave a sad shake of the head. ‘All I know is that they took her in there and she never came out. The tree was just … I saw the flowers, and they were the only thing I found. Everything else was just greens and browns and blacks, and there they were. Beautiful. Perfect.’

Porter felt his previous excitement fading, replaced with a pounding in his head. So close. He had felt so close. She sat straighter in her seat now, expression and body language rediscovering some of its former poise.