"Don't take us for idiots please mister ... yes that would be a good start, mister what? Come on let's have your name. No harm in that is there?"

"I'm not telling you anything. Go to hell all of you and get out of my flat!"

A flurry of thumps followed and she could hear Tim again but now he was wheezing, retching and fighting for breath.

"It took us quite a time to find you", came the other voice again nonchalantly. "And as you know, time is money. Now we've got quite a lot of money because we are successful at what we do".

Sarah had heard this voice before and the line. She could imagine him tilting his head back and looking at Tim down his nose. His speech sounded well practised. He spoke it mechanically, like a litany.

"But we haven't got money to throw away and we've had to spend a lot of it finding you. This means we are basically very cross. And when we get cross we get very, very nasty".

Each word was punctuated with the sound of a blow and another wrenching grunt from Tim.

"Now are you going to tell us all about yourself and where we can find your little girl friend - or are we going to get the opportunity to really wreck you".

Fear like iced water trickled slowly down her back. How had Ferret Face found them? Her mind raced back over their movements, checking and rechecking. Just as rapidly, she dismissed this train of thought from talking to a man of breeding and intelligence, if much misplaced. What about a cup of tea".

"Oh, yeh … I'll put the kettle on then shall I boss"?

With legs that felt like jelly, somehow she got back into the side room before the door was opened. It had been a different voice this time. Sarah couldn't see his face as he went down the hallway to the kitchen at the end. She stood there trembling behind the door.

"Fancy joining us in a cup of tea do you?" It was Ferret Face again addressing himself to Tim.

"Nothing like a nice cup of tea - made with nice hot, boiling water. Good for conversation, you know, a bit of a boil up. But we'd better make a few little arrangements, alright? Very simple ones, really, see. You nod your head when you are ready to talk and I tape up your mouth until then to stop you upsetting the neighbours with your screaming".

The crackling sound of heavy adhesive tape being put over Tim's mouth combined with a lot of spluttering and angry struggling from Tim.

Sarah realised without any doubt they intended to use the boiling water on Tim. She had to get help and quickly.