I’m still not convinced it’s the best plan. What if something goes wrong? But they have a point. The mad woman will not be expecting us. We can take her by surprise.

‘I can pick locks.’

‘What?’ Everyone turns to look at Louise who is standing behind Elsie.

‘Yeah, my brother taught me when he was a dickhead. He’s okay now.’

Everyone laughs, momentarily, forgetting what they’re planning.

‘Thanks, Louise. That could be very helpful,’ Anna says turning her eyes up to heaven.

‘But what about Tom, I’ll have to tell Tom our plan.’ Tom is out with the search party at the minute but I can ring him.

Everyone stares at me, the silence deafening. It seems no one is agreeing to that. I glance from one stern face to the next before conceding defeat. The girls are right. Telling Tom is a stupid idea. He’s bound to tell the cops or want to come with us. He’s bound to find his own unique way to balls it up.

I’m still not convinced it’s the best idea though. This is not some stupid crusade, this is Amber, my baby, my daughter.

‘I’ll go along with it for now but if at any stage I want to bring the cops on board, you’re not to stop me.’

Everyone nods.

Burke walks in. ‘How’s progress?’

Sienna answers her. ‘Great. We’ve shared her picture all over the place, thousands of shares. If she’s out there to be seen. Someone will see her.’

In the corner of my eye, I notice Elsie slipping the drawing of Joyce the mad woman from the table and holding it underneath so Angela Burke doesn’t see it. I don’t know why she’s doing that. She must have her reasons.

I lead Burke out to the hallway, Elsie’s revelation hovering on the tip of my tongue. Do I tell her or do I put my faith in my colleagues? ‘Have you any news?’ I plead.

‘The search is underway, Sally. We’re waiting to hear back from the station to see if they’ve had any success locating Joyce. There’s a big team on this, we will have some results soon.’

I decide to tell her what Elsie said, get the cops out to the location as quickly as possible but Donna walks through the open front door. She had gone home for a few hours and now she’s back.

‘How are you?’ She pulls me by the arm away from the detective and into the kitchen. Burke is stunned by Donna’s actions. An inquisitive expression creeps onto her face as I disappear behind the wooden door. She knows we’re up to something.