‘Do you think there was a falling-out between the principal players? Was it Nikolov that Rose Shepherd was afraid of? Did he come to Derbyshire looking for her?’

‘I do not know, Diane.’

‘Well, someone did. And the Mullens got innocently mixed up in this?’

‘It depends what you mean by “innocently”. They must have removed the baby from Bulgaria illegally.’

‘True. We know that much, at least. But why would the Mullens’ adoption have failed?’

‘Who can tell? Adoption has become very difficult for foreigners.’

‘But Bulgaria was supposed to be the place to go to adopt a baby. According to Henry Lowther, anyway.’

‘No longer,’ said Kotsev. ‘Since Bulgaria wishes to join the EU, it has signed the Hague Treaty. As a consequence, our new laws say that orphans or abandoned children become available after having no contact with their family for six months. I understand there are now fifteen thousand children in our orphanages, but only a very few legally adoptable.’

‘So the Lowthers fell foul of that change?’

‘I would say so. It is a legacy of the Soviet mentality – let the state do everything for you, from cradle to grave. And this is the result. The state can look after your unwanted child, why not? So yes, it is difficult. It costs many thousands of dollars.’

‘So they went for the illegal option. They must have been desperate by then.’

Kotsev nodded. ‘Is there a photograph of this child?’ he asked.

‘Yes, here –’

He looked at the photo of Luanne for several minutes. Then he muttered under his breath something Fry didn’t catch. For the first time, she thought she saw his confident exterior dented.

‘She looks to me as though she might be a Roma,’ said Fry.

Kotsev sighed deeply. ‘Yes, you’re right. I had a suspicion, but no more.’

‘Suspicion?’

He waved a hand, as if he were swatting away a fly. ‘I understand if you’re angry at this, but there is some information that is difficult to share.’

‘Oh, really? I thought you were sharing everything with me, so we could work together as colleagues.’

‘Very well.’ He shrugged. ‘It’s possible that this child belongs to one of our leading criminals, the Mafia boss I mentioned. A very unpleasant gangster.’

‘What do you mean “belongs to”?’

‘They say he had a child, born to a young Romani woman. The woman ran away from him when the baby was born. It took him a little while to catch up with her.’

‘What happened to the woman? Is she dead?’

‘People who upset mutra chiefs don’t survive very long. But her body has never been found, that’s all I can say.’

‘And she sold the baby?’