The three detectives stood almost in unison. Jessica knew she was being given possibly the most trusted job because she would be looking into an active part of the case. She felt a little silly for her earlier outburst.

After getting Lloyd Corless’s address, Jessica called Esther Warren, her contact from the kidnap squad, who told her that a support officer was with Lloyd’s mother, who had already been interviewed once. The situation was unusual because a missing child wouldn’t necessarily mean the kidnap squad had to be involved. Because Lloyd’s name had been found on the same list as Isaac Hutchings’s, usual procedure had been bypassed. The truth was no one actually knew if the boy had been taken.

The two women met a couple of hundred metres away from the Corless house, much as Jessica had done with Cornish a few days ago when they had visited Lucy Martin.

Esther was around Jessica’s age, with long brown hair and a smart grey suit. She got out of a large saloon car and shook Jessica’s hand as they stood on the pavement. The frost from the morning had cleared but the cloudless skies meant it wasn’t very warm. Esther invited Jessica into her car and they sat to exchange notes.

Jessica wouldn’t have admitted it but she actually liked Esther, even from a first impression. There was something about the gentle, knowing smile on her face; the look of ‘I know we have to work together, I hate it, you hate it, let’s just be mates’, that endeared her immediately.

‘Have you read the case notes?’ Esther asked when they were both settled.

Jessica nodded. ‘I read through the initial interview notes. Lloyd went missing last night, yes?’

‘Right. I think we’re best going over all the details again with his mother. Have you ever spoken to a parent in a situation like this?’

‘Not exactly . . .’

Esther was flicking through a file but looked up to catch Jessica’s eye. ‘All right, I’m sure you’ll be fine. She’ll be keen for people to be out there looking for her son. It’s always the thing – everyone assumes that if there are two people talking, then that’s two people who should be on the streets. No one ever realises that most people are found away from any of that. We’ll have to keep her calm, let her know there are lots of officers on the case and that we’re simply trying to get as much information as possible to help the police who are already searching.’

‘Do you know who’s already with her?’ Jessica asked.

‘One of her friends and a support officer.’

‘Husband or boyfriend?’

Esther looked down at the papers. ‘I don’t know. There’s definitely a father in the notes but I don’t think they live together.’

Jessica was used to being the person in the know who took the lead but was happy to take instructions from the other woman. Her outburst from earlier felt even more misplaced.

‘All right, let’s go,’ Jessica said.

The estate wasn’t as new and clean as the one Isaac Hutchings had lived on – but was a step up from where Lucy Martin was living. Some of the homes were well looked after, with tidy front lawns and cars parked on driveways but Jessica saw an old washing machine dumped in the front of another. One of the first things she looked for when she was assessing an area was the number plates of the various cars. It was a fair indication that the estate encompassed all types of people, given that the vehicles varied from being less than a year old, to one or two that had been on the road for fifteen years or more. A few of the windows had tinsel pinned around them, others had fairy lights. Two properties side by side looked as if they were in a competition to see who could have the most elaborate Christmas decorations. One had a giant inflatable Santa fluttering in the breeze on the front driveway, the other had a tree almost as tall as the house decorated with any number of lights and hanging decorations. Esther noticed the houses too, muttering a ‘tacky shite’ under her breath that made Jessica like her even more.

The Corless house fell into the ‘tidy’ category. The front lawn had been paved over and had a small car parked on it that was a few years old. In the front window was a foil ‘Happy Christmas’ sign with a string of fairy lights ran around the inside frame.

Esther rang the bell and the door was opened by the support officer, who had been expecting them. The officer introduced both women to Rachel Corless, her friend Diane Briggs and Marcus Corless, Lloyd’s older brother. Rachel was sitting next to her friend on a battered leather sofa with a hole in one of the arms. She didn’t stand to welcome the officers but did tell Marcus he had to leave the room. The support officer took him upstairs, Jessica and Esther each sitting in an armchair facing the sofa. In the corner was a Christmas tree nearly as high as the room. It was decorated with more lights and various shiny objects.

Jessica watched Rachel closely but she didn’t offer much emotion. She had short brown hair and was wearing a pair of jeans with a loose jumper. Perhaps unsurprisingly, she looked as if she hadn’t had much sleep and, much like Kayla Hutchings, had dark bags under her eyes. Her expression was blank.

As they had entered the house, Jessica felt as if she was walking into a wall of heat, which only got worse as she entered the living room. The central heating seemed to be fully on and she could feel herself beginning to sweat. Everyone else seemed oblivious and Rachel was hugging her knees into her chest, as if she felt cold.

Diane did much of the initial talking but, after plenty of reassurance from both detectives that officers were out looking for Lloyd, Rachel was finally persuaded to talk about what had happened the previous evening.

She spoke quietly, not looking up from the floor. ‘Lloyd started at the comprehensive this year. It’s the same school his brother Marcus goes to.’

She tailed off quickly and Diane picked up the conversation. ‘I gave them a lift to school, along with my two. We both work at a factory a few miles away. Usually we try to arrange it so one of us is off, which lets us pick them up. Sometimes we’re both off and we go to the park or something but, once a week or so, it just doesn’t work out. Yesterday we were both down for late shifts. It’s not really late but it means we don’t finish until six o’clock.’

Esther was taking notes and looked up from her pad. ‘Do they walk home when they can’t be picked up?’

Rachel didn’t look as if she was going to answer and it was Diane who spoke. ‘Yes, it’s only a mile or so away.’

Jessica had already read the initial report so knew the rest of the story. The officer who had taken the statements had spoken to Marcus Corless as well but there was no need to go over his details a second time. Other officers were visiting the school to take more statements.

Esther asked the next question. ‘We know Lloyd left his final lesson with classmates and there is CCTV of him leaving the school,’ she said. ‘Do you know if he regularly walks home with his brother or other friends?’

Diane answered. ‘I asked my two. They said they didn’t see Lloyd after I’d dropped everyone off in the morning. They’re all in different classes.’

She looked at her friend. For a few moments it didn’t seem as if Rachel was going to speak but wearily the words came out. ‘Marcus knows he is supposed to walk home with his brother when we aren’t able to pick them up. Lloyd is on the small side for an eleven-year-old and Marcus has always been a protective older brother. He says he didn’t see him after school. Someone said last night there was camera footage of Lloyd leaving school but I don’t think the boys had a specific meeting place.’

That was exactly what Jessica had read. She had not seen the camera footage but knew Lloyd had been seen walking off-site around two minutes before his brother was seen waiting by the very same gates. No one knew why Lloyd had left without waiting, but talking to the number of students who might have seen him by those gates – or witnessed him leaving with someone – was going to take a while.