Hands clasped in her lap, Sasha sat on a dining chair, which had been moved into the living room. ‘I will, but first I want to hear in your own words what you saw. Take your time, nobody’s in any rush.’

‘You say that.’ Michelle checked her watch. ‘But it’s not like we all need to be here.’

Karin shot her an annoyed look and Michelle shrugged.

‘There was this girl standing on the corner of the street.’ The tendons in Lydia’s hand slid beneath the skin as she gripped a phantom mobile. ‘She was looking at her phone.’

Sasha studied Lydia again, her thin, unnourished hair, the way the skin stretched tightly across her pockmarked face. ‘How old was she, would you say?’

‘I dunno, she was a teenager, fourteen, fifteen. They all look the same at that age, don’t they?’

‘Can you describe her, Lydia?’

‘She had a short skirt on, and these cool trainers, which were really white. Blonde hair to her shoulders, one of them shiny jackets, you know, like they all wear.’

‘And then what happened?’ asked Sasha.

‘There was a noise behind me.’ Lydia glanced again at Karin for encouragement. ‘And a van passed me. Well, I didn’t think anything of it, but it stopped further up, next to the girl, and then she was gone.’ She clicked her fingers. ‘Just like that.’

‘Gone?’

‘She seemed to tip forward, like she’d been pulled into it.’

Bum perched on the edge of the chair, spine perfectly straight, Sasha crossed her legs. Her lean body broadened to wide hips. A coil of hair from her long wavy bob – prematurely icy white – bounced across her eyebrow. She lifted it clear with the tip of one slim finger to reveal the sharp point of a widow’s peak against her olive skin. She smiled encouragingly at Lydia, and it occurred to Karin that the entire time she had been here, that gentle smile – by turns concerned, encouraging or sympathetic – never left her oval face.

‘Have you had any other reports?’ Karin asked. ‘Did anyone else see anything?’

‘We’ll have officers knock on the doors of the houses along the street. It’s possible someone else saw the… incident. But until a girl fitting that description is reported missing, there’s not a lot we can do. At this point, a crime may have been committed, or it may not.’

‘What if it’s him?’ Lydia looked anxiously at Karin. ‘What if he’s back?’

Michelle made an exasperated noise. ‘Get a grip, Lydia.’