Her suspicion that sympathy would only prompt the woman to cry more seemed justified when, with a few loud sniffs, the woman put away her handkerchief and looked up.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said.

‘Right, now, how old is the missing infant?’

‘She’s six months,’ the woman stammered.

‘And where did you last see her?’

‘I put her in her cot yesterday at about seven, as usual, and when I went in to her this morning, she was gone.’

Geraldine nodded. She had expected to hear that the baby had been asleep in her pram in the park, or at the shops, that the mother had turned away for only a few seconds, and in that short space of time a stranger had run off with the baby. Someone who had stolen the baby away from her home ought to be easier to trace. She relaxed slightly, while the mother hid her face in her handkerchief once more and wept.

‘Now, you need to tell me exactly what happened,’ Geraldine said firmly. ‘Let’s start with your name.’

‘Jessica Colman.’

The constable brought in a cup of tea and Jessica sipped it gratefully.

‘I’m sorry if it isn’t very hot,’ Geraldine apologised with a slight smile, maintaining her attempt to normalise the conversation, despite the circumstances that had brought Jessica to the police station. ‘Now, tell me everything that happened, and please be as detailed as you can.’

Jessica explained how she had woken up late that morning. ‘Usually Daisy wakes me really early. She’s a good sleeper but she’s only six months old.’ A tear slid down her cheek, but she retained enough self-control to continue cogently. ‘This morning I didn’t wake up till half past nine and she wasn’t crying, which was odd, but at the time I was pleased because it meant she was still asleep and not calling out to be fed. But when I went in to check on her, she wasn’t there.’

Jessica dropped her head in her hands and began to cry again. Through her sobs, Geraldine made out a few words: ‘disappeared’ and ‘so little’.

‘So she wasn’t in her cot?’ Geraldine repeated.

‘No. It was empty.’

Gradually Geraldine learned that Daisy was Jessica’s first baby. Her husband, Jason, was the baby’s father and the only other person living in the house.

‘My mother has a spare key,’ Jessica said in answer to a question about who else had access to the house.

‘And have you spoken to your husband and your mother?’

‘No. I came straight here. Jason’s away. He’s on a stag do this weekend.’

‘A stag do? Where is he? Can you call him?’

‘I don’t know where he is.’

‘Where does he work?’