Melanie gave her a shy smile of thanks. ‘Actually,’ she added, ‘about the number plate … the reason I didn’t get it was because it was covered with mud. Like really covered, all over.’

‘Clever girl,’ Connie said. ‘One last thing. Did you hear anything in particular when he drove away? Anything about the car and how it was moving?’

‘Um, no, and I was listening carefully, because I wanted him to leave and not come into the library. I was still worried he might have noticed me.’

‘So no squealing tyres or revving engine? Nothing like that?’

‘Nope,’ Melanie said. ‘Nothing like that.’

Connie gave her a nod. She was pleased to see the mother still holding her daughter’s hand. Parents reacted oddly to children when they were forced to interact with any type of official, whether that was the police, or doctors, or a school administrator. Melanie would be scared for a while, and she was going to need her mother to reassure her. Someone had kidnapped a kid, and when the media broke the story, every parent within a hundred miles was going to be freaked out.

‘You did great. I’m going to leave DC Champion to look at those car pictures with you then hopefully you can go home. If you feel stressed or scared, it’s important to ask for help. It’s normal. Don’t you keep that bottled up, okay?’

Tears appeared suddenly in Melanie’s eyes.

‘I’d better go have a chat with DI Baarda. The information you’ve given will definitely help,’ Connie said. She exited the library to cross the car park and join a group of officers stood around a crying woman and a man with a face that encapsulated all the tension of an unexploded bomb.

‘Are you normally late collecting her, Carmen?’ the man demanded.

Older than Carmen by several years and by multiple style generations, they made an odd couple.

‘Because if you’re always this late, then someone could have figured out that she’s always kept waiting out here,’ he finished.

‘Don’t you dare do that. You’re not going to make me feel guilty about this. Maybe Meggy’s mother finally turned up and decided to try her hand at a bit of parenting,’ the woman screeched.

‘Meggy’s mother left years ago. We’ve moved house twice since then, and she’s not the least bit interested in Meggy. If she really did want to see her, she could have just asked. She knows I wouldn’t ever stop her from seeing her daughter.’

Baarda stepped forward, hands at his side. Connie was impressed. Too many police officers intervened in heated situations with their arms up, palms forward, which without fail made people feel even more aggressive.

‘We’ll obviously do our best to trace Meggy’s mother if you’ll give us her details, Mr Russell, but we have to consider wider options.’

‘None of this is helping. Do you have cars out around the city looking for my daughter? You should be closing all the roads within the city and checking every vehicle. Why are we standing around talking?’ Meggy’s father was ashen and shaking.