Kesey’s eyebrows gathered together in a pained expression she couldn’t hope to hide. ‘Dale will be questioned as soon as this interview is at an end. He may have taken Lottie. He could have left her somewhere between the time of leaving your home address and being stopped by the officer. It’s not inconceivable. But it’s not a good idea to make any assumptions or jump to any conclusions before we know the full facts. We have to consider every possibility as the investigation progresses. Failing to do so would be a failure on my part. I’d be letting Lottie down, and that’s the last thing I’d want to do. Do you understand what I’m telling you?’

Megan clenched her hands into tight fists, digging the nails into her palms, oblivious to the pain as the full implications of Kesey’s words slowly dawned. ‘Oh, God, where is she? I can’t bear it. Where’s my little girl?’

Kesey wanted to comfort Megan. She wanted to say just about anything that relieved her inevitable feelings of dread, even slightly. But the detective knew from hard-won experience that brutal honesty was best. False hope was no hope. There was a window of opportunity where a missing child was concerned – the likelihood of finding them alive diminished with every hour that passed. There was no room for ambiguity, no room for sentimentality, however well-intentioned. It was time to get on. ‘I’m going to do everything I can to find your daughter. That I can guarantee you. Let’s get a statement down on paper as quickly as we can. I’ll then interview your ex personally, and we can proceed matters from there. Are you ready to continue?’

Megan nodded frantically, her eyes staring but not seeing, shoulders tight. ‘Yes, I understand.’

Kesey handed Megan back her phone. ‘I’ve already asked my sergeant, DS Raymond Lewis, to issue a missing person notification to all officers within the force. It will be circulated on a nationwide basis later today if that proves necessary.’

Megan’s shoulders curled over her chest as the stark reality fully sank in. She’d never felt lower, never more desperate. Her face was ashen as she spoke again. ‘You… you… you don’t think Dale took Lottie, that’s what you’re implying. You think… you think somebody else took her. Some stranger, some monster who broke into my house.’

Kesey looked back at Megan with a pained stare. ‘Let’s get the full facts down on paper.’

‘Oh my God, I’m right, aren’t I! You think Lottie’s been abducted by someone else entirely. A stranger who invaded my home.’

Kesey took a thin sheaf of papers and a pen from the cluttered drawer below the tabletop. ‘If Dale did take her, she was only in his car for a matter of minutes. That’s a hypothesis we can’t rule out entirely. But as I said, we need to consider all possibilities. Now, let’s start with a written statement. You know how this works. You’ve been here often enough. We need to record everything that happened from the time Dale arrived outside your home address to the time you discovered that your daughter was missing this morning. Once that’s done we can continue from there.’