The call to Robbie at the office, the rush home from work. His face, pale and shocked, etched in her mind. Searching and searching and searching. The other men still searching too. Some of the women at home with the children. But not Della, who was holding her up now.

‘The guards know what they’re doing, they’ll find her,’ Della was saying, over and over. ‘You need to take a break. Just for five minutes. You’re shaking. You’ll collapse.’

Della was right, but how could she stop searching?

‘Mrs Murphy?’

‘Yes,’ she whispered, turning to face a police officer.

‘I’m Detective Sergeant Branagh. I know my colleague has already asked you some of these questions, but I need to ask you again. Does Lily know her address?’

‘I don’t think so,’ she said, still whispering. ‘She always says she lives in “Edenvale, Ireland” if she’s asked. I don’t know why we didn’t teach her the address.’ Tears threatening.

‘And do you have a phone in the house?’

She nodded.

‘She wouldn’t know the phone number, would she?’

A headshake.

‘And …’ He paused and swallowed visibly. ‘Does she know how to swim?’

At that, Della gripped Mary’s arm, sensing perhaps that Mary was having difficulty staying upright.

‘No.’ She said it so quietly, Branagh had to ask again.

‘She can’t swim?’

‘She’s three. She can’t swim,’ Della said, taking over. ‘But that river is so shallow this time of year – if she fell in, she’d be knee-deep at most?’

‘We’re just gathering as much information as we can,’ was all he’d say. ‘And, going back to when she was last seen – what time was that?’

‘Around midday,’ Della said.

‘Is that correct, Mrs Murphy?’

Mary nodded.

‘And she was playing in the wooded area beside the building site?’

Another nod.

‘Without adult supervision?’

‘Of course there was adult supervision,’ Della said. ‘We were standing on the green, watching. But it was Hide and Seek, so they were hiding.’

‘And Lily was on her own with the bigger children?’

Again, Branagh addressed the question to Mary, and again, Della answered.

‘She was with Cora O’Brien.’

‘And how old is Cora?’

‘Eight,’ Della said, and now Mary could hear how wrong it sounded.

‘And the older children – all from here in Rowanbrook?’

‘Yes. Mostly. We get kids from Oakbrook coming here, because of the green and the woods.’

‘And the building site,’ said Branagh.

‘Yes.’

‘We heard reports from some of your neighbours about trouble recently – broken windows, young people creeping around at night?’ Branagh asked, looking from Della to Mary and back again. Mary opened her mouth to speak but still nothing came out.

‘I heard the same,’ Della was saying, ‘but I doubt it’s anyone from here doing it.’

‘And you, Mrs Murphy?’

‘I’ve heard about broken windows, yes. But not our windows … There’s been—’ She stopped, unsure.

‘What is it, Mrs Murphy?’

‘I … I noticed some things missing from my house over the last two days, and wondered if someone broke in. But I don’t know. Nothing of real value was taken, other than my husband’s watch. And it may just be misplaced.’