She wasn’t in the ‘home corner’, squatting down behind the toy stove. Not in the pile of dress-ups and black starry cloaks hanging on the little rack. Nor under the mini trampoline. Not hiding beneath the child-sized tables and chairs.

‘She was here a minute ago. They were playing hide-and-seek.’ Julia heaved herself out of the chair and looked around the room. ‘Is she in the toilet?’

Dropping Dora and the biscuits on the table, I charged to the kids’ toilet and pushed open the door. Empty.

The adult toilet door was closed. A knock and a push. Not there either.

‘She must be outside in the cubbyhouse,’ Imogen reassured me. ‘The kids have been in and out. I’ll come with you.’

If she’d been in the cubbyhouse, Bella would have run up to me when I’d come in the gate.

Julia was closest to the window. ‘There’s no-one in the sandpit,’ she reported.

Flinging open the door, I sprinted to the cubbyhouse.

‘Bella, where are you?’

Down on my knees, peering underneath the wooden beams for a stuck child.

Imogen started walking towards the little shed but I was quicker than her. I yanked apart the metal doors and stepped into the gloom. Tricycles, scooters, trucks for the sandpit, buckets, spades, a climbing frame and a gymnastics mat. No Bella.

I scanned the small outdoor area again. A concrete path for riding bikes, a few small trees, some grass. A high wooden fence down the bottom near the lane and the car park.

‘Bella!’ I called. ‘Bella! Bella!’

‘Seriously, Lexie, she was here a moment ago.’ Julia placed a hand on my shoulder. ‘Maybe she followed you to the shop somehow?’

The black dots were dancing in front of my eyes. Had I locked the gate properly when I left?

‘Where the fuck has she gone?’ Tara wailed near my ear.

My whole body recoiled from her.

Morgan burst into tears and the baby began to howl. The twins were climbing up a tree, hollering at each other to get higher for a better view.

‘Children, go inside!’ Mel screeched. ‘Matthew and Thomas, get down from there. Immediately! Julia, take them all inside right now!’

I froze at the panic in Mel’s voice. Mel, who was always calm.

The images came one after the other, each one a punch, harder and harder. Bella hit by a car. Bella abducted in a van. Bella hiding in a concrete tunnel. Bella bleeding on the highway.

‘She can’t be far.’ Imogen squeezed my arm and directed me to the gate. ‘We’ll find her.’

‘Lexie, you go to the shops.’ Mel was suddenly composed again. ‘Imogen, check the lane, and Tara, walk towards the church. I’ll go to the school. I’m sure Bella will be okay.’

I couldn’t share Mel’s optimism, not until I held my daughter in my arms again.