‘I’d like to keep it a bit long,’ said James about his hair and, while Daniel concentrated on fulfilling his wish, Ringo stood staring at them.

‘Is that OK?’ asked Daniel.

It obviously was, because Ringo ordered James back to the cell to get ready to be filmed. Daniel subsequently gave a trim to the five other Americans and Brits, all of whom had also received a piece of paper with a message they had to recite. In the cell next door to theirs, George was rummaging around, preparing to film the hostages. But it turned out that it was too dark in the room and the Beatles postponed the video production until they had found some lamps.

When Daniel’s fellow prisoners came back from the unsuccessful recording in the other cell, they said that Kayla Mueller was there with another western woman they hadn’t seen before. They decided to try to smuggle a message to the women when they had to go back and make the videos. The Beatles didn’t take long to get hold of lamps, cables and a Nikon camera, and talked elatedly about what they called their ‘new media centre’, where the two women were apparently staying. Six new orange jumpsuits were delivered to the British and American hostages, who disappeared into the room to be filmed.

When they returned, they were told that they should put on their normal clothes and save the orange suits for later. While they had been away, they had managed to deliver a note to Kayla. It said that they could communicate through a small hatch in the toilet, which all the hostages shared.

There was silence. Peter was in a panic and afraid. James tried to take care of his countrymen.

‘I know it doesn’t look good, but we just have to keep hoping until the end,’ he said to Steven and Peter. They were no longer united in hope. It was clear to everyone that the remaining prisoners held by ISIS were now in two different categories: those who made videos in front of a grave carrying messages about ransoms, to be used in negotiations, and those who, wearing orange jumpsuits, had to recite unrealistic demands to countries that didn’t pay ransoms or allow the families of hostages to raise money.

Daniel had been told that a ransom of €1.3 million had now been offered for him, yet he feared that his family would never be able to collect the amount demanded, despite the list of potential sources of money he had given Dan when he and his MSF colleague left the prison in mid-May. Something suggested, however, that the two released hostages were still waiting somewhere in Syria to cross the border with Turkey, because suddenly the Beatles demanded that Daniel write a letter to his family. He felt that time was running out. Apart from the British and Americans, there were only Federico, Toni and himself left. Since the Beatles didn’t demand a specific wording in the letter, he wrote something more personal.

‘It’s hard to see people who have been here a much shorter time than me go home to their families,’ he wrote, and made suggestions about whom they could ask for help.

I pray every day that this nightmare will soon have a happy ending […] I pray that Christina stays strong and will soon be finished with high school. Thinking of you makes me strong. Signe, I love you more than you can imagine and I am so sorry that I put what we have together at stake […] I pray that one day I can come home and see you all again.

· * ·

Arthur was in Lebanon when he received Daniel’s letter. If it had been possible, he would like to have delivered it to the family personally when he was back in Denmark, but he thought it would take too long. He wasn’t planning to go back soon. So he decided to call Susanne and read it aloud to her. The aim of the letter was to put pressure on the family, but the tone of it was different from the letters they had previously received from Daniel. This time Daniel had put his feelings into it – and written it in his own words. In Arthur’s view, Daniel being able to write and express himself was a positive sign. Susanne was at work in Legoland when the phone rang. Since she couldn’t stand in the shop and talk, she took it with her outside to a courtyard.

As Arthur read her son’s words, she hid behind some containers, because she couldn’t hold back the tears. Daniel was asking her to be strong and to fight. He missed her and was thinking of her.

Hidden from her colleagues behind the container’s iron surface, she could no longer observe the proprieties of being an unworried mother and employee. She hung up, but sat there for a long time afterwards until her tears had dried.

Hi Mum, It’s Daniel

Anita had to think creatively. Even though she was grateful and proud that the family had been able to collect many millions of kroner, it still wasn’t enough and donations had dropped so much that she feared the family wouldn’t be able to pay to free Daniel. She had to get more people to take an interest in her brother.

In the middle of May an anniversary celebration was held for Vesterlund Youth School’s former pupils and Anita set up a stand where she sold Daniel’s pictures and gave a speech, in which she quoted his recent more personal letter from Syria.

But Anita had to admit that Daniel’s plight wasn’t attracting the attention it once had. Their network of contributors had given all they could, and the event only brought in a modest amount. The family had raised about 80 per cent of the ransom and Anita felt that the time was ripe to contact large companies and business people. Since they had already collected most of the amount, it seemed less presumptuous to ask wealthy people who didn’t know the family, whether it be individuals or companies, if they could help.

She took the chance and went all-in with a new letter that described the details of Daniel’s situation, which she urged them not to bring to public attention while the case was unresolved. In the document, she included the first proof-of-life image of Daniel and she revealed the ransom amount, as well as how much the family had collected – and she described the video from the grave with the threat that Daniel could be killed if they didn’t pay.

Within days, the donations began coming in. There were apparently some people in Denmark who were prepared to go to great lengths to help a person in need and, on 22 May, the family submitted a new offer to the kidnappers.

‘We really hope that you will consider this offer and respond,’ wrote Arthur and the family in the email. They offered €1,710,000 (£1,300,100), equivalent to more than 12.8 million kroner.

Three days later the kidnappers responded, briefly and unmistakably: ‘Only 300,000 Euros left to go.’

They enclosed an audio file in which Daniel said ‘Hurry up’ – and added that they would more than double the demand to €5 million. The negotiations, which in fact were not negotiations but an absolute demand, were going in the wrong direction.

Anita checked her mobile every fifteen minutes for messages and answered calls, day and night. She couldn’t even sit and have dinner with her boyfriend for half an hour without being interrupted.

In late May she took a day off from fundraising and went to the cultural festival in Odense Harbour. There were stalls with organic honey, folk dancing and a climbing wall, and Anita played a game of kayak polo. During the hour she was in the water, her mobile was in her bag in the judge’s tent. She let go of the battle between life and death for a moment and felt only her body moving around in the kayak.

When she came ashore, her bag had gone. Thieves had zipped open the tent and snatched the bag containing her mobile – her lifeline to people who were trying to help the family. The latest letters she had sent out contained only her and their lawyer’s contact information, so as to spare Susanne and Kjeld.

Anita took the situation with her usual stoic calm and did everything to get back up and running, but it wasn’t without obstacles, especially when it turned out that her email account had been hacked. She couldn’t get her Gmail account to recognize that it was she who was logging in and there was no customer service department to call. She got hold of someone who sold advertising for Google and berated him with her story of a younger brother who was being held hostage in Syria and would be killed unless they collected enough money. The employee put her in touch with the right people. When she was finally able to log on to her email account, everything was in Arabic and emails to her had been deleted or automatically forwarded to the thieves’ email address. The worst thing was that the thieves had sent an email out to all her contacts, including those she had emailed in recent months about the fundraiser, stating that Anita was in distress and needed the money.