There was no doubt she was nervous, but she stood aside to let them in. Sitting opposite them in her front room, she gazed anxiously at them, her fingers twisting in her lap. For a moment no one spoke, while tears slid down her pale cheeks.

‘First my granddaughter disappeared, then I lost my husband,’ she whispered, ‘and now my daughter’s being harassed. As if she could have killed anyone. It’s an outrageous accusation. Outrageous. No one should have made that allegation against Jessica. The poor girl only just got her baby back, and now she’s been taken into custody. It’s monstrous.’

As she was speaking, a baby began to cry somewhere in the house and Anne jumped to her feet.

‘Excuse me,’ she said. ‘I have to see to her.’

‘Of course.’ Geraldine glanced at Ian. ‘I’ll come with you.’

Anne turned back. ‘Why? Do you think I’m going to run off with her?’

Geraldine followed Anne into the kitchen where the baby was lying in a travel cot, yelling. Anne scooped her up, making soothing noises as she fetched a small jar of baby food from a cupboard and settled the crying baby in a high chair. As soon as she placed a spoonful of the mush in the baby’s mouth, the baby stopped crying and began slurping and gulping the food.

‘She’s beautiful,’ Geraldine said, and Anne smiled.

‘There’s no way we’re losing her again,’ she said.

‘Ella took good care of her for you,’ Geraldine said. ‘Fortunately, now Jason’s gone you can put all that behind you.’

‘Yes, Daisy’s home where she belongs.’

‘Jessica isn’t,’ Geraldine said.

A faint look of irritation crossed Anne’s face, then she looked over at Geraldine with tears in her eyes. ‘You have to help her. That man she married, he was a monster. He used to beat her. Whatever happened to him he had it coming. I swear, if she hadn’t killed him, I would have done it myself.’ Her eyes glittered as she spoke.

Geraldine waited while Anne finished feeding the baby before reiterating how beautiful Daisy was, and asking to hold her. Anne’s eyes never left the baby as she handed her over and followed them into the front room where Geraldine nodded at Ian.

‘We would like you to accompany us to the police station to answer a few more questions,’ he said.

‘You’ll have to ask me here,’ Anne replied. ‘I need to put the baby to bed.’

‘She’s already asleep,’ Geraldine said, without putting the baby down in the cot. ‘I’ll wait here with her until we have a vehicle to take her with us to the police station where she’ll be well cared for until your release.’