‘I better not forget the trains,’ I say, returning to the toy box in the front room to select Thomas and four of his pals to help them through the day.

Angela Burke calls for attention. ‘We’ll start the search with the first sign of daylight.’ Placing a map on a makeshift board that she’s created from a chair and a clothes line, Burke points at the area surrounding our house on the map. ‘We will need more bodies, neighbours, family, friends?’

Tom takes his phone from his pocket. ‘I’ll make some calls.’

Burke kneels down to talk to me. ‘This must be very frightening for you, Sally, but you should know, I do not expect to find Amber this way. I believe she’s alive and we will keep looking for her until we find her.’

I hope she’s telling the truth, that she doesn’t believe she will find Amber in a field, or a shed, or a river. I really do hope so because if she does… if she does… Don’t go there, Sal.

Eventually the sun peeks over the top of the houses on the far side of the street and the search gets underway. Police mainly but some local people as well. I’m about to join them, putting on a yellow vest that somehow landed in my hands, when I look down the street and see them arrive. Oh my God.

Megan is leading them, all of them, even Anna. They’re all waving at me as they march up the street. At the back of the group I see Elsie, her two bags dragging along the pavement. How the hell is Elsie with them? I smile for the first time since this nightmare began. Something hugs me. Hope. The girls are here to help.

They walk up the driveway, last night’s make-up still evident on some faces. Sienna is the first to suggest we bombard the social media sites, confidently walking into the room like she’s a real detective who has come to save the day.

‘You can go ahead and pound the pavements,’ she says to Burke. ‘We’ll sit here and conduct our own search via the phones.’

Anna takes my cell, lifts my finger to unlock the code and sends a picture of Amber to each of the girl’s phones. They send it to their friends asking them to send it to their friends and so on. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. etc., etc., etc. Within fifteen minutes half of Dublin knows Amber is missing.

‘Now… sightings,’ she says, pulling her chair in closer to the kitchen table where the cyber search is well and truly underway. ‘We’ll probably get a lot of shite and we don’t want to waste time, so triage them, like they do at the hospital. Put them in order of the likelihood of the tip being possible. Sienna you can do that. Louise you help her.’