‘Let’s canvass some of the shops nearby.’ Caruso spoke to the detective opposite him. ‘Gwen, can you show pics to the shop assistants? See if anyone recognises Mrs Parker or Bella. And see if we can get footage from the nearby ATMs. Check if Mrs Parker has been taking money out of her account.’

‘Who owns that white car?’ Suze asked. ‘That’s what I want to know. Maybe it’s Mrs Parker’s lover,’ she mused, ‘and they’re running away with Bella.’

‘We’re mapping the whereabouts of both parents for the past week; I’ve got some of it already,’ Caruso said. ‘Smithy, see if you can pick up anything on their plates—where has Mrs Parker been driving? Hassan, get a list of Dr Parker’s hours from the hospital and ask about Bella’s broken wrist and Mrs Parker’s cheek. Find out if both parents went in to Emergency.’

Caruso watched the team hurry off in different directions and clicked his tongue against his teeth. When he’d heard the job come through on the radio yesterday, he’d assumed that the girl had wandered off and the first responders would find her in fifteen minutes. Yesterday and last night, the SAR team had continued checking secluded spots where a child might hide or lie injured. They’d found nothing.

The probability that Bella had been abducted was now high.

No custody dispute, no Family Court orders, no child protection reports. None of the stuff they usually saw in parental abduction cases. The story about Bella’s broken wrist seemed suspicious, mainly because of the way Mrs Parker had related it. The details were vague but perhaps that was the shock of the accident. Their gardener, Deirdre Bekker, said she’d been working in the backyard that day and Dr Parker had come home for lunch unexpectedly. The doctor said he’d arrived home minutes after Bella had fallen from the tree. In all of the interviews, not one person had reported seeing Dr Parker being violent in any way. Was he just very good at hiding it: the perfect doctor at the hospital but an aggressive bastard at home behind closed doors? Or did Mrs Parker have something to do with her daughter’s injuries?