‘The mother seems a tad bonkers,’ said the female constable who had first spoken to Jessica. ‘Hysterical doesn’t even come close.’

‘You’d be hysterical if you were going through what’s happening to her,’ Geraldine replied. ‘Show some compassion, for God’s sake! We don’t yet know what’s happened to her baby.’

A young constable called Naomi interrupted her. ‘We know the baby’s been stolen. Whatever happens, this can’t end well.’ She shook her head glumly.

Geraldine disagreed. ‘Hopefully she’ll be found very soon and it will turn out all right in the end. But what must be making it even worse for the family is that they have to be questioning whether they can trust each other.’

‘You’re right. We have no idea who’s responsible,’ Ariadne said.

‘It could only have been one of the family, because no one else had access to the house,’ Naomi pointed out.

‘As far as we know,’ Geraldine replied.

‘It’s feasible someone could have broken in,’ Naomi said, ‘but it seems pretty obvious the father’s run off with the baby.’

‘It may be obvious but that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily true,’ Geraldine replied.

‘The obvious explanation often is the right one,’ Ariadne pointed out.

‘But surely the father can’t have taken the baby away, knowing how vulnerable Jessica is?’ Geraldine said. ‘She’s already mentally fragile. This could tip her over the edge.’

‘Maybe that’s why he did it,’ Naomi replied.

‘If the marks on the sheet turn out to be bloodstains from the baby, that would suggest one of the parents injured her and they’re trying to avoid discovery,’ Ariadne said, tentatively.

‘Anything’s possible,’ Geraldine replied heavily. ‘It may not have been deliberate. The baby could have been accidentally killed, and the parents panicked and conspired together to cover it up, to protect one or both of them.’

Silence greeted this suggestion. Several officers shook their heads as though they were refusing to consider such a horrible suggestion, even though the idea must have occurred to all of them. No one could deny it was possible, and since the discovery of suspected blood spots in the cot, it was beginning to seem a likely explanation.

‘Let’s wait and see what the scene of crime officers come up with before jumping to any conclusions,’ Eileen said. ‘They’re going to be looking for evidence of anyone else having entered the nursery.’

‘And it might turn out not to be blood at all,’ Geraldine added.