On the drive back to headquarters, she faced up to what was preying on her mind in particular. The officers were out of their depth–she knew it and they knew it. This case was receiving a lot of coverage, and it was likely to go international if a body was found. They had wasted the golden period of the investigation. In the vital first hours after the abduction, they had searched for an adult, a man. That was the usual pattern, wasn’t it? WPC Sam Jones clenched her jaw. She and–in her defence–everyone else had assumed that Matthew had been taken by someone he knew: his father, uncle, neighbour. When they found out that his dad was dead, they had even started to look at boyfriends that Donna had had in her past–maybe there was a different dad, maybe this was just a paternity fight. If it had been the case that a family friend or boyfriend had taken the toddler, the story would only have rated a passing mention. As she shuffled the papers on her desk, she picked up a copy of the photograph taken from the CCTV footage. And then she asked herself the question she had been trying to avoid since Donna had spoken. Would it have made a difference? Would it have made a difference if they’d looked for youngsters right away?

The phone rang almost as soon as she got in and Lynn, the receptionist, sounded shaken when she almost shouted, ‘What?’ into the receiver.

‘Donna Cook is in reception and she wants to see you,’ Lynn said. Sam Jones twiddled with the cord on the phone and didn’t reply. ‘Sam, it’s the little boy’s mother and she wants to see you,’ the receptionist hissed conspiratorially.

‘I know who Donna Cook is,’ Sam snapped back, then hung up abruptly. Donna must have just assumed she’d be here rather than at the temporary office–maybe she should have stayed there after all. She didn’t really want to deal with Matthew’s mother when she had absolutely nothing to tell her, but she walked through to where Donna would be nevertheless.

The front desk was manned by the desk sergeant, a pear-shaped man with thinning hair, who was separated from the public by safety glass. There was a round grille at mouth height to allow him to speak across the counter. The only available seats were made of imitation leather, brown to hide the dirt, and on the pale beige walls there were posters of missing persons. A low table was placed in front of the seats and it was littered with public safety leaflets.