Mary nodded. ‘According to Mother, little Daisy was a good sleeper. She had the occasional bad night, of course, when her teeth bothered her or she had a cold, but that’s only to be expected.’

‘But generally she slept well?’

‘Well, of course I wasn’t there to see,’ the health visitor replied sharply, as though she felt her assertion was being questioned. ‘But Mother reported she slept well as a rule. In fact, she assured me Daisy was no trouble at all.’ She smiled as though the baby’s satisfactory progress was a testament to the efficacy of her own supervision.

‘Did you notice anything unusual in the household? Any cause for concern?’

‘No, as I said, Baby was healthy.’

‘I meant,’ Geraldine went on, choosing her words with care, ‘did you notice anything about the behaviour of the parents that might possibly have given you any cause for concern? Anything at all? Were there any signs that Jessica was suffering from post natal depression, for example?’

The health visitor’s greying eyebrows rose. ‘No, certainly not,’ she replied.

She sounded slightly indignant at the question as though she were somehow responsible for Daisy’s parents. Perhaps she was concerned that she might be accused of negligence if something was amiss that she had failed to notice.

‘We need to know everything we can about the family to help us find the missing infant as quickly as possible,’ Geraldine explained.

She wondered if Jessica had been entirely honest with the health visitor. Although she held back from saying so, Mary was clearly sharper than Geraldine had suspected, and seemed to pick up on what she was thinking.

‘Jessica was perfectly comfortable with me,’ she said frostily, ‘and I’ve no doubt she would have confided any worries she had to me. If I had been alarmed in any way, I would have acted on my concerns at once.’

‘Yes, I don’t doubt that,’ Geraldine reassured her. ‘Now, is there anything else you can think of?’

Seeming to take Geraldine’s questioning as an attack on her professional competence, the health visitor merely sniffed.

‘Mary,’ Geraldine said gently, ‘you are clearly a very shrewd observer, and very perceptive when it comes to the parents of very young children.’ Hoping she was not overdoing the flattery, she was pleased to see Mary’s expression soften visibly.

‘What do you think happened to Daisy?’

Mary assumed that Jason had taken the baby, and once Geraldine gained her trust, she was vociferous in her censure of a father who would take such a young infant away from home without the mother’s permission. Geraldine thanked her, and hoped she was right, but Mary had not really offered any deep insights into what had happened.

Meanwhile, Ian had organised a team which was going from door to door questioning neighbours.