‘Oh, I’m sure he won’t mind,’ Anne replied. ‘Anything you can do to help find Daisy as quickly as you can…’ She gave a lame smile. ‘To be frank, we’re pleased at any interest the police show in finding her. The more you can do, the sooner our little girl will be returned to us.’ She broke off with a sob. ‘Where do you think she is?’ She reached out and put her hand on Geraldine’s arm, a ruby and diamond ring sparkling on her finger. ‘She will be all right, won’t she?’

‘We’re doing everything we can to return Daisy to her mother as quickly as possible,’ Geraldine replied.

This time Anne led Geraldine across a spacious hall into a large square kitchen that overlooked landscaped gardens at the back of the house. They sat down at a scrubbed wooden table where a stout middle-aged man gave a peremptory nod, as though giving Geraldine permission to speak.

‘How has your daughter taken to motherhood?’ Geraldine asked.

David’s florid face reddened more and his eyes hardened at the implied query over Jessica’s suitability for parenthood.

‘It’s only natural for a woman’s hormones to be all over the place for a few months,’ Anne replied before her husband had a chance to speak. ‘It wasn’t an easy birth, but Jessica’s over the moon at being a mother. She’s been devoted to the baby right from day one. We all are. She always wanted a daughter, didn’t she, David?’

Her husband grunted assent.

‘And the father?’

‘Jessica insists he’s been supportive,’ Anne replied tersely, dropping her gaze and staring at the table.

David’s grunt this time was less enthusiastic than before.

‘Was Jason happy about having a daughter?’ Geraldine persisted.

Anne’s reply was cagey. ‘Yes, I suppose so. He didn’t really say much, not to us anyway. He’s back at work, so we don’t see much of him. Not that we ever did,’ she added almost under her breath.

‘Thank goodness,’ David interjected. ‘That man was a waste of space. I could see that from the first moment I set eyes on him. A freeloader if ever I saw one.’

‘Didn’t you get on well with him?’

‘Yes, of course we all got on. Why wouldn’t we?’ David demanded.

He glared at Geraldine as though she had made an improper suggestion although, given his previous remarks, his claim that he was on good terms with their son-in-law did not exactly ring true.

‘And your daughter gave up her job when she had the baby?’

‘Yes. She told us she was planning to go back, but she never really settled in the world of work,’ Anne replied.