‘Theo’s out for the day with my husband, Robin,’ Vivienne came back in. ‘And Josie is meant to be asleep in her room, although she doesn’t seem too keen on that.’

The grizzling continued from upstairs. Vivienne handed around flowered teacups and saucers. How do you take it? Milk? Sugar?

‘Now,’ said Vivienne, in the end. ‘How can I help you?’

‘We’re researching,’ Miranda said, quite calmly, ‘surrogacy in Bangladesh. We have reason to believe that your children were born out there, and that your father helped you get a passport for them to bring them home to England.’

Vivienne froze, perched on the edge of her armchair. The saucer fell from her hands, smashing pink and white chips over the flagstones. Vivienne put her hands to her mouth, holding back the scream.

‘What do you mean?’ Vivienne just managed to control her voice. As Miranda began to speak again, the scream burst out. ‘Get out of my house. How dare you? How dare you? Go to hell.’

‘Here.’ Casey stepped forward to help, but Vivienne was pushing her away with a sudden violence. Don’t touch me.

The room was silent, for a moment. Vivienne’s eyes flicked to the photograph, the baby wrapped in the long white dress. Her hands clenched.

‘I am very sorry to ask you about this, Mrs Hargreaves,’ began Miranda.

‘No,’ Vivienne spat. ‘You’re not. You’re not remotely sorry.’

But there was no denial in her voice. Vivienne slid out of her seat, down to the floor, automatically feeling for bits of china.

‘I don’t . . .’ She tried for calm too late. ‘I don’t know what you mean . . .’

‘We’re just trying to find out what is going on in Bangladesh,’ said Casey softly. ‘We have heard some very disturbing things, and we need to understand. Careful,’ she put out a hand again, ‘you’ll cut yourself.’

‘What do you care?’ Vivienne looked up from the floor, crouched among the shards. Her lips were pulled back from her teeth, almost a snarl. ‘You’ll never be able to prove a thing. Even if the clinic was raided by the police, our names wouldn’t be on anything. Theo is my child, mine and Robin’s. And that’s the end of it. The DNA . . . Everything.’

‘Look.’ Casey kneeled down on the floor beside Vivienne. ‘We can keep you and your family out of this. But we think terrible things are happening to women in Bangladesh, right now. And it may have got worse after Theo was born, for all we know. If you tell us what happened, it could help us find out what is going on.’

‘I want you to get out of my house.’

‘That,’ Miranda said quietly, ‘won’t help anyone.’

There was a long silence. Vivienne looked at Casey, across the old Persian rug. She pushed herself backwards to sag against the armchair.