‘They know nothing about you or what you have done or experienced, so don’t worry about it,’ said Pierre in his usual calm manner.

Daniel told Pierre about his last violent weeks in captivity and his fear of what would happen to the remaining hostages.

They agreed to meet again sometime soon.

That afternoon Daniel, Arthur and Anita drove to the airport to take a flight to a safe house at Aalborg Air Base in Denmark. They were transported home in one of the Armed Forces’ aircraft, and Arthur had made arrangements for them to stay at the air base for a few days. Daniel could get the peace and quiet that would enable him to recuperate and avoid media attention. It was a move designed to help him with his first fragile steps back to his old life.

Daniel was sitting in the white leather seat, staring out of the window at the flat landscape, when finally, on 20 June 2014, he landed on Danish soil.

· * ·

Kjeld, Susanne and Christina stood waiting for Daniel at Aalborg Air Base. They were in high spirits. They were going to see their long-lost son and brother – and they had come directly from Rosborg High School, where Christina had just got top marks in her penultimate exam.

The family was greeted at the barracks by a psychologist, who made it clear that Daniel should come to them, not vice versa. It was important that he had a choice after so long in captivity. Christina was only half-listening, while intensely watching the sky for her big brother. The family was led out into a small corridor with glass doors, so they could watch as the plane hit the runway – and then Daniel got out. As soon as Christina saw him, she raced out and threw herself, weeping, into his arms.

Susanne and Kjeld followed at a more modest pace. Daniel and Susanne both wept as they embraced each other.

‘How lovely you look, Mum,’ said Daniel.

Kjeld was more calm and collected. He gave Daniel a hug and a firm pat on the back and Daniel noticed that his hair had become greyer.

‘You’re so lucky …,’ sniffled Susanne, ‘… that you’re loved by so many people.’

At the barracks Daniel was assigned a room where they all sat down to listen to his story. He skated lightly over the torture centre and his suicide attempt. He slowed down when he came to the moment when he tried to escape, which he related with a modicum of humour. He dwelt on tales of the hostages exercising and playing home-made games.

They had never imagined that he would try to take his own life. As his mother, Susanne knew instinctively that the captors must have been very hard on him for him to choose that path.

‘I’m well,’ said Daniel. ‘I’ve been broken down, but I’ve also rediscovered myself. Please don’t feel bad for me.’

But he had changed. When the barracks served sandwiches as a snack before bedtime, he chose the most boring one, with rolled meat sausage, and ate it with some potato crisps from his room. If food dropped on the floor, he picked it up and put it in his mouth. He also ate what the others left on their plates, because he didn’t want to let any food go to waste.

They thought he was eating oddly and Susanne noticed he’d developed a lazy eye. She suspected that it was probably because he hadn’t been wearing his glasses for a long time. Anita stayed at the barracks, but the rest of the family left to go home to Hedegård. At which point the conversation that Daniel was dreading awaited him.

‘Come with me,’ said Arthur and Daniel followed him out into the kitchenette. ‘I’ve made an appointment with Diane Foley. You can call her now.’

Daniel knew that the time had come to contact James’s parents, and he was glad that Arthur had taken the initiative. It was going to be a difficult conversation.

Diane answered the phone in New Hampshire.

‘Hi, dearest Daniel, so wonderful to hear your voice,’ Diane said in a soft voice. ‘How are you? We hope you’re doing OK under the circumstances.’

Daniel said he felt fine.

‘That’s good to hear. How nice. We just wanted to hear if you had talked to Jim. Did he say anything to you?’ she asked gently and put the phone on the speaker, so that James’s father John could listen in.

Daniel walked in circles around the kitchenette, while he delivered James’s greetings from memory: his thoughts about his grandmother, whom James hoped would carry on dancing; the message that he could feel the family when he prayed in the dark and that he hoped and knew that everyone was staying strong. Daniel told them that James had put on weight and was getting better food. He could hear that Diane was writing everything down.

‘How has it been for all of you? How did they treat you?’ asked Diane afterwards.

The longing for just a tiny bit of information burned down the wire. They had been living in the dark for months.

‘James is better than he was in the beginning,’ said Daniel. He refrained from talking about the last two weeks, when the Beatles had been behaving violently and unpredictably. Instead, he told them about the Risk game and the chessboard and the Secret Santa scheme and how much strength their son had shown.

‘What do you think is going to happen, Daniel?’ asked Diane.

He took a deep breath and paused.

‘I don’t know, Diane. I don’t know any more than you do. It’s as if there’s a different plan for the British and the Americans.’

He told them about the video that had been recorded with James in which he had been forced to demand €100 million.

‘We’re groping in the dark. There’s no one who will help us,’ said Diane, referring to the US authorities. ‘Oh, Daniel, we’re so grateful – we know this is hard for you. You’re a huge help – we want you to know that.’

When he put the phone down after an hour and a half, he sat out on the lawn with Arthur, smoking cigarettes.

‘For Christ’s sake, Arthur, this is so damn sad,’ said Daniel. They just sat in silence a while.

‘I’m afraid you’re the last person that they’ll talk to who has seen their son alive,’ said Arthur.

Daniel went straight to bed and passed a restless night.

The barracks were intended to be a safe environment for four days, and there was a detailed plan in place that would help Daniel create a smooth transition to the life that awaited him outside the air base. He received the constant support of professionals who had experience of helping hostages return home.

One day he was taken to the hospital to be X-rayed and, in between appointments, he drove with his guardian to buy some more underwear. They went to H&M’s underwear department, which turned out to be for women only.

Daniel stared at the lingerie, the posters of half-naked women and the female customers, feeling like an eleven year old. He hadn’t seen an uncovered woman for more than a year and laughed at himself, telling his guardian that he could hardly remember what a pair of breasts looked like. He fled across the street to a hunting-and-fishing store, where he found a black balaclava and took a selfie with it on. He also bought an air rifle and got it wrapped up.

He often talked with Anita, who followed him closely in those early days. During their conversations, he asked frequently about Signe.

‘Isn’t Signe coming to Christina’s graduation party?’

‘Only if you two are still together, Daniel,’ said Anita elusively.

A few days later, when she said goodbye to him in the barracks’ car park, he was excited that Signe had said she would visit him.

Anita stared out of the window of the train from Aalborg to Odense. She finally had a moment to herself and the emotions overwhelmed her. In the middle of the train compartment, she burst into tears. Not so much over the suffering her brother had undergone in Syria, but over the pain he had to live through now. This time no one could make it easy for him. She could pick him up from kindergarten when he was little, raise money for his release and fill a toiletry bag with nice things, but she couldn’t mend his relationship with his girlfriend after such an ordeal.