Her fingers fumbling, she called the number he gave, and, with a feeling like a stone in her stomach, asked what had happened. He said he couldn’t tell her much, but it felt more as if he didn’t want to, as if he was sparing her from something. Quill hadn’t checked in. They regarded him as missing. They were pulling in resources from everywhere to try and find him. They’d call as soon as anyone knew anything.

After she ended the call, she immediately wanted to call him back and demand to know what he hadn’t been telling her. But she didn’t.

At 3 p.m. she collected Jessica from nursery and said nothing about Daddy. She hoped that this would just be a day without him that Jessica wouldn’t even notice.

At 7 p.m., when it was time for bed, Jessica asked where Daddy was. ‘He’s at work, sweetheart; they sometimes have very long days. He might be here when you wake up.’ Jessica had nodded and, five minutes later, repeated it to Sarah: that Daddy might be here when she woke up.

When Jessica had gone to bed and had had her story, and was asleep, Sarah called Gipsy Hill again and asked to be put through to the Portakabin. She got Lisa Ross, whom for some reason Sarah had always imagined to be very glamorous. She sounded nervous to hear from her.

Bloody hell. Bloody hell, this was getting worse. She started to ask all the questions and felt as if she had picked at a loose thread and now everything was unravelling.

‘We know where he was when he made his last phone call. There’s no indication that he’s come to any harm.’

‘I know about what you lot do. Was he doing something like that?’

‘Mrs Quill—’

‘Don’t you … don’t you tell me it’s an operational matter. You’re the one that … you were willing to … please, would you just tell me everything?!’