All eyes fell on Kate as she burst into the Incident Room. ‘Talk to me, people. Where is she?’

‘Working on it now, ma’am,’ DC Freeborn said, a phone pressed firmly to his ear.

Kate headed to the board so all the team could see and hear. ‘Tell me how it happened.’

Laura stepped forward. ‘I took the call from the Emersons. They’d been phoned by a friend of Daisy’s asking them if she was now back home. Long story short, the caller told them that Daisy had just liked one of her Facebook posts, which is what had made her think Daisy was back.’

‘Who was the caller?’

‘Hannah Grainger, ma’am, a friend of Daisy’s.’

‘And it was her post that was liked? What did the post say?’

‘It was an image of Hannah, Daisy and Georgie, taken about a year ago. Hannah had uploaded it with a message saying, “Missing You x”, and approximately ten minutes later Daisy liked the post.’

‘She didn’t comment, just liked it?’

‘That’s right, ma’am.’

Kate made eye contact with each member of the team. ‘This could be the confirmation we’ve been searching for that Daisy is still alive, and is trying to, or is ready to communicate. Did she like anything else while she was logged in?’

Laura looked over at Freeborn, who was in deep conversation with someone on the phone. ‘As soon as the call came in, I told Ewan, ma’am, and he loaded up Daisy’s profile, but it doesn’t look like she did anything else. He’s now talking to the UK-based office for the website, trying to get more detail.’

‘Why weren’t we aware of this sooner? It doesn’t look good when we have to rely on the victim’s parents to supply us with news. We need to be better than this.’ Kate paused. She hadn’t meant to take out her frustrations on the team. As she looked at each one of them, she couldn’t escape how tired they all looked; each had put in way over their contracted hours to progress the investigation.

‘We don’t know for certain that Daisy accessed her own profile,’ Humberidge sneered. ‘For all we know her abductor is just toying with us.’

Kate had wanted to raise the possibility more sensitively. ‘Humberidge makes a fair point,’ Kate said evenly, taking a mental note to speak to him about his tone in meetings. ‘For all we know, Daisy wasn’t the one to like the post. We need to identify where the profile was accessed from and narrow down exactly who is responsible. Hopefully, it will be Daisy and we’ll have great news to share with the Emersons, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves.’

Kate dismissed them with a nod, and made her way to Freeborn’s desk, hovering over his computer as he spoke on the phone. Taking his mouse, she scrolled across Hannah Grainger’s page, opening the photo of the three girls and studying it for any clue as to why Daisy had chosen to like it now.

The girls were dressed in their school uniform – navy blue skirt and blazer, with paler blue blouse – but it must have been taken later in the day, as Daisy had removed her blazer and tied the ends of her shirt in a fifties-style knot. The girls were grinning inanely, clearly enjoying the moment. Daisy was in the middle of the two other girls, and Hannah was the one holding the selfie stick. Kate couldn’t escape how similar the three girls looked. Beneath the photo, Daisy was listed as liking the image at 18:45.

‘They’ve put me on hold,’ Freeborn said, lowering the phone.

‘What are they saying? Can they confirm if Daisy accessed the profile, or someone else?’

‘They’ve confirmed that her email address and password were used to access her profile, but they are currently looking for the IP address. That should confirm whether she used her phone to access the profile or whether it was a computer terminal.’

Kate clicked her fingers at DC Quinlan. ‘Olly, get on to the mobile provider and find out if Daisy’s phone is switched on, or has been in the last hour.’

He offered her a thumbs up in response, putting the phone to his ear.

‘The IP address should also narrow down the location of where the profile was accessed too. That should tell us what part of Southampton she’s in.’

‘Keep on at them. This could be the breakthrough we’ve been waiting for, Ewan.’

He raised the receiver as the hold music ended, and Kate walked away from his desk, collecting her coat and car keys and calling Patel over. ‘I’d better go and visit the Emersons. They’re going to want to know what’s going on.’

‘You want support?’

She patted his arm in thanks. ‘This is something I’d better do alone.’

---

Kate noticed a difference in Val Emerson the moment she opened the door. Gone were the tears, the aching heart and eyes that begged for positivity. In their place was excitement, hope and anticipation. Kate didn’t want to be the one to temper it, but she didn’t want to encourage false hope.

‘Can I come in?’ Kate asked.

Val stepped to one side, and indicated for Kate to enter, but at the last minute pulled Kate into an uncomfortable hug, whispering, ‘I knew she was still alive.’

Kate followed Val to the living room, and it soon became clear that Barry Emerson hadn’t taken the news as well. He paced the room extinguishing one cigarette and lighting another without missing a step.

‘Would you like a cup of tea, detective?’ Val asked, encouraging her to take a seat.

Kate thanked her, suddenly realising how thirsty she was and following Val out to the kitchen, eager to get away from the cigarette smoke. ‘Val, before—’

‘Do you take milk and sugar?’

‘Milk, no sugar, thanks.’ Kate watched Val as she busied herself, moving to the fridge and removing the milk, pouring it into the cups, and then shuffling back to the fridge. ‘Val, please, there’s something I need to—’

‘I’ll just go and see if Barry wants a drink too,’ Val interrupted, heading back into the living room and returning a moment later.

Kate continued to watch her, knowing that Val was stalling the awkward conversation Kate was trying to start. She eventually sat down at the table across from Kate, placing a chipped mug in front of her.

Kate reached out and placed her hand on top of Val’s. ‘There’s something you need to consider, Val.’

Val pulled her hand away and was on her feet, heading for the cupboard. ‘I forgot to offer you a biscuit.’

‘Please, I know you don’t want to hear what I have to say, but I wouldn’t be doing my job properly if I didn’t. Please sit down and let me finish.’

Val remained where she was, her back to Kate and the biscuit tin in her hand.

‘I desperately hope that it was Daisy who went online this evening,’ Kate began, willing Val to turn and retake her seat. ‘But there is a possibility that it wasn’t Daisy. I want you to be prepared in case that happens to be the situation.’

Val remained facing the cupboard, her shoulders slightly dipped. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. ’Course it was her. Who else would know her email address and password?’

‘My team are working to confirm where the site was accessed from and that should put us a step closer to finding out whether it was, in fact, Daisy. We won’t stop until we know for certain.’

‘Why you got to go and say something like that? This is the best news we’ve had since… since that awful night, and now you want to pour water on it.’

Kate’s heart ached as she spoke. ‘That’s not what I’m doing, Val. I’m trying to prepare you for the worst, in case things don’t turn out as we all hope.’

Val spun round, tears ready to spill from her eyes. ‘Why would you wish that upon us? Don’t you believe that if you think positively, positive things will come to you? Think the worst and you’ll bring trouble to your door. That’s what my mum always used to say.’

Kate’s mother had preached the same, but Kate had witnessed too much pain and suffering on the job to believe in the power of positive thought.

‘Once we know the IP address that accessed the account, we should be able to pinpoint the location, and then it’s a matter of looking for any security camera footage and witnesses. As with everything else it should put a step closer to the truth of what happened that night.’

‘Everything okay, Mum?’ Richard Emerson asked, standing at the kitchen door behind Kate.

Val wiped her eyes with a tissue and forced as big a smile as she could manage. ‘The detective was just telling us about your sister going on Facebook.’

Richard stepped in and wrapped his arms around his mother’s shoulders, allowing her to bury her head in his broad shoulders. ‘Even more reason for your lot to double their efforts,’ he said, glaring at Kate, clearly still angry about their earlier exchange.

‘We’re doing everything we can,’ Kate said, standing, suddenly feeling like an intruder in what was a family situation. ‘I’ll call you, Val, as soon as we know more.’

But Val wasn’t listening as she gently sobbed into her son’s arms.