Angela Burke is sweet-talking Amber, attempting to relax her before hitting her with the big questions. I know all the tricks now.

When we move into the kitchen, she takes Tom up on his offer of coffee, one sugar, while we all wait anxiously at the kitchen table.

Amber tells her all the information she gave me last night, except for Charlie and the photo bit, but I still don’t know how Joyce got Amber to go with her. Burke must be reading my mind.

‘How did Joyce McCarthy get you to the apartment?’ she says, holding her cup in the air for Tom to refill it. I wish that worked for me.

I’m holding my breath. Amber’s gaze moves from Burke to the table. I can tell she feels stupid.

‘No one is judging you, just tell the detective what happened.’

‘She told me she had proof, she wanted me to give it to Kenny.’

‘Proof of what?’

‘That she was his mother.’

‘So you had met her before.’

‘Yes, once with Kenny.’ She glances over at me briefly. I nod, assuring her I’m fine with whatever she has to say.

‘So you weren’t afraid of her?’ Burke says.

‘No. I said I’d meet her but I had to be quick, I had to go to a party.’

Amber continues. Joyce met her in a taxi, said she was coming from someplace else and asked if she would come to the apartment to collect the proof. She promised to have her back in Sarah’s within half an hour. Amber believed her.

There is a moment in life when you realize how little control you have over things. Most of it’s luck, stars aligned, angels, karma, whatever your thing is. But very little of what happens is in your own hands. Ten per cent maybe. This is one of those moments. Knowing my child was in such danger – and how easy it happened – scares me. It’s too much to process. Pain shoots up my back. I want to get sick.

‘I knew she wasn’t going to hurt me, Ma.’ Amber looks at me. ‘I knew after the first few minutes in the apartment… she just wanted someone to believe her.’

‘Okay.’ Burke sighs. ‘That’s probably enough for now. Is Kenny here?’

‘No we sent him to school.’

‘Well, I need to talk to him.’

Amber is about to step on to the stairs when Angela Burke says, ‘Just one last thing, Amber.’ Amber turns, looks at me, then Tom. Why is she so nervous all of a sudden?

‘Yes?’

‘Amber, did Kenny ever say anything about the things Joyce McCarthy claims she sent him over the past few years?’

‘No, he said he didn’t know what she was talking about.’

‘Do you believe him?’

‘What?’ Amber doesn’t know what to say, her face turns white.