‘It’s believed that Ms Turner did not have her daughter with her when she visited the shop, and we are investigating a number of hypotheses. Abbie may be with family or friends. She may be with babysitters. She may be on her own somewhere. She is approximately one hundred centimetres tall and weighs forty pounds. She has brown curly hair which she often wears in bunches. She has a small graze on her right cheek which is now likely to be a scab.’

A close-up showed a grinning face with gappy teeth, a brown scab on her cheekbone and a nick on her nose.

‘The Metropolitan Police urgently needs your help to find this young girl. If she’s been alone for three days, she’s likely to be suffering dehydration, and time is critical. She could be very poorly indeed. We urge anyone with information to contact Detective Inspector Maya Rahman at Limehouse Police Station.’

‘Poor kid.’ I switched the screen off and looked round at the faces of everyone in the team.

‘Boss, I’ve just had a call from Nilufar Ahmed,’ Alexej said. ‘Several youth centres are going to hand out “Find Abbie” leaflets and put up posters. And our Media Office are putting shareable posters in police and community Facebook groups, and on Instagram and Snapchat.’

I felt my spirits lift. What had Frazer said about social action? We’d give him social bloody action.

‘We’ll find her.’ I heard the resolve in my voice. ‘I don’t know how, but we will.’

‘So, none of her regular babysitters have her, and Kelly’s estranged from her family?’ Alexej looked from Dan to me. ‘Are we certain she wasn’t in the fire?’

‘I’ve double-checked Dougie’s reports and the ones from the fire service. The teams combed every inch of the building, and the fire dog was given plenty of time. Even if Abbie had been burnt, Dougie is positive the dog would have smelled her, and that they would have found some of her bones and definitely her teeth.’

‘Urgh.’ Shen turned away.

‘With Abbie’s mum dead,’ I said, ‘gathering data about what she was wearing is going to be extremely difficult. The analysts have been studying Kelly’s social media. They are trying to contact her Facebook friends, so we can get whoever her best mate is to meet a uniformed officer at Kelly’s flat. She might be able to figure out which of Abbie’s clothes are missing.’

Alexej had his face glued to his monitor.

‘I’ve sent two officers back to conduct a search,’ Dan said. ‘Laptop, clothes, photos, any further address books or diaries.’

If Abbie had died in the fire, it would be tragic. But if she was alive, it was our job to protect her. All of a sudden, the stakes had got a whole lot higher.

Dan, 1.55 p.m.

Dan, 1.55 p.m.