‘Why won’t she answer?’ I wailed.

‘Take a deep breath, Rachel. Constable Black will be at your house any minute now and he’ll be able to check on Beth.’

‘Just let her be okay,’ I said.

We pulled into the car park of the daycare centre where Molly was and I don’t think Constable King had even put the handbrake on before I’d jumped out of the car and was running towards the entrance.

‘Rachel!’ she called to me. ‘You don’t want to run in there like that. You need to be calm for her. If she sees you upset, you’ll only scare her more.’

That stopped me in my tracks. She was right, of course. I had to act the part of being calm and in control and hope that Molly wouldn’t hear how hard my heart was beating or hear the tremor in my voice.

Constable King put her hand on my arm, her touch soothing me. ‘Steady yourself. Take a deep breath,’ she urged and I did.

She reached out and pressed the buzzer to gain entry to the centre.

My daughter’s caregiver, a softly spoken woman called Marie, who seemed to exist in floaty skirts, voluminous tunics and chunky necklaces, answered within seconds.

‘She’s through in the quiet area,’ she said. ‘We’ve managed to calm her a little and she’s reading a story now with Catherine. I’m so sorry that we didn’t see her toddle off to the fencing. She can’t have been there long. She’d been playing in the sandpit just minutes before.’

‘Did your staff get a good look at him? Or do you have CCTV that might have captured his image?’ Constable King asked.

‘He was wearing a jacket, a hoodie, with the hood pulled up. Shorts, white trainers. His face was obscured. There’s CCTV capturing the front of the building but none on that side. We can have a look and see,’ Marie said.

‘But can I please just see Molly now?’ I asked.

Surely there would be time for all this after I’d seen my daughter? She was my priority. And Beth. I looked at my phone. She hadn’t called back. Constable Black would be there now, but he hadn’t called yet, either. Hadn’t radioed to say she was fine. But I knew Molly was just metres away, and I needed to see her and hold her.

‘We’ve tried to keep what happened from the other children,’ Marie said, ‘so we’ve moved them into the art room so they don’t get upset. We’ll go through this way.’