‘I made you a cup of tea,’ Tara said, startling Kate as she emerged from the steam-filled bathroom with a towel wrapped loosely around her.

‘Oh, thanks,’ Kate said, accepting the mug.

‘I didn’t know if you’d have sugar in it or not, so I didn’t put any in.’

Kate took an enthusiastic sip. ‘It’s great, thanks. Do you want me to drop you at college on my way into work?’

Tara shook her head. ‘My bus goes past the end of your road, so it’s fine. Thanks, though.’

An awkward silence fell between them.

‘I’d better get dressed and on my way,’ Kate eventually said, nodding towards her bedroom door.

‘Oh, yeah, I should get out of your hair too,’ Tara said, heading towards the door and then stopping. ‘I really appreciate you letting me stay again. And I’m sorry if my being here has made things at work difficult for you.’

And in that moment, Kate recognised the fear in Tara’s eyes; facing an impossible choice, with life-changing repercussions. Kate wanted to hug her, but felt too self-conscious with only the towel on. ‘Will you let me know how you get on? When you talk to your mum and dad, I mean.’

‘Sure, and I promise I won’t drop you in it with my dad.’

Kate offered her a warm smile, and waved as Tara showed herself out of the door and disappeared from view. Kate remained where she was for a moment, picturing how the supe and Judith would react to the news, and hoping the three of them would remain patient with each other.

Kate headed into her bedroom, and threw on her clothes, but as she finished her tea, she reached for her phone, unable to shake the unbearable need to make a call.

‘Hi, Rob,’ she said when the line connected.

‘Kate? Is everything okay?

‘Fine, sorry, I just wanted to say hi to Chloe. Is she still there? She hasn’t gone to school already, has she?’

‘You’re in luck, I’ll just get her. Don’t be long, though, we need to go in a minute.’

‘Mummy?’ Chloe said, taking the phone from him.

‘Hi, sweetie, how are you?’

‘I lost another tooth last night,’ she said proudly.

Kate felt her eyes filling up. ‘Did you? Well, I hope you’re going to put it under your pillow tonight so the tooth fairy can collect it.’

‘I will. Are you coming up this weekend?’

‘Just you try and keep me away.’

‘Mum? Dad says we have to go.’

‘That’s okay, sweetheart. You’d better do what he says, because you don’t want to be late for school. I love you, Chloe.’

‘Love you too.’

Kate couldn’t stop the tears escaping her eyes as the line disconnected.

---

‘Holland?’ Kate exclaimed, exasperated by DC Freeborn’s latest update.

‘Amsterdam to be exact.’

Kate still couldn’t believe what he was saying. ‘Daisy Emerson is in Amsterdam? Are they certain?’

He nodded, showing her the email the Facebook team had sent, on his screen. ‘They finally managed to pull out the IP address that had accessed her profile, and it came from Amsterdam. Might explain why we can’t find her anywhere local.’

Kate frowned. ‘If anything, this lends itself to the likelihood that she hasn’t run away. I’m sure her mum said they still have her passport. Do we have an exact address for where the IP originated?’

‘Working on that now,’ Quinlan piped up. ‘I’m waiting on a call back from our Dutch counterparts. They should be able to narrow the search and let us know what they find.’

‘Good, but if you haven’t heard back from them in ten minutes, call again.’ She turned back to the rest of the team. ‘While those two work on that, let’s have your thoughts on what Daisy could be doing in Amsterdam, and how she got there.’

‘Choosing the path of least resistance,’ Laura piped up, ‘maybe she borrowed a friend’s passport and hitched a ride on a boat. If she wanted to disappear, she’d know we’d check her passport, but probably not one of her friend’s.’

‘In that case,’ Kate countered, taking on the role of devil’s advocate, ‘how did she pay for her ticket?’

‘Borrowed the money from someone?’

‘Who?’

‘Maybe the same person who loaned her the passport, ma’am.’

‘Hmm, maybe,’ Kate mused, considering it. ‘But if she wanted to disappear, why log in to Facebook where she could be traced?’

‘Maybe she didn’t think she could be traced,’ DC Rogers suggested. ‘Or maybe it was her way of letting her friends know she’d made it there safely.’

Not a bad theory, but Kate’s gut wasn’t buying it. ‘Wouldn’t she just message them privately, though? Nobody would have been any the wiser if she had. By liking the post, she’s making her reappearance public. And it still doesn’t tell us how she got to Amsterdam.’

Laura raised her hand. ‘Could Daisy pass as either Georgie or Hannah? In the image she liked, they all look so similar. In the dark and with a bit of makeup, would passport control be able to say for certain that one wasn’t the other? I know it seems a bit of a stretch, but probably worth checking out. We could ask the other girls to bring in their passports, and if one can’t, that would be pretty damning.’

Kate pointed at Laura. ‘Follow that up for me. Anybody else? What’s she doing in Holland?’

‘Maybe she was grabbed by someone and taken there,’ Patel offered, picking up the baton. ‘She wouldn’t be the first one.’

‘Do me a favour, Patel, and speak to Hendrix’s Organised Crime Team. Float the theory and see what they suggest. Find out if they’re aware of any groups actively involved in trafficking in this county and beyond.’

Rogers coughed. ‘Ma’am? If someone did snatch her with the intention of selling her on the black market, why would they let her log in to Facebook and like a picture?’

‘You have an alternative theory?’

Rogers looked nervously at her colleagues’ faces. ‘Maybe DS Humberidge is right, and this is just a killer’s way of toying with us. While we’re chasing our tails trying to discover whether she’s alive or if she’s in Amsterdam, he’s secretly laughing at us.’

‘Vicky, if that is the case, then Daisy’s body is probably still in the UK, possibly in the city. So get out there and find her.’

Rogers lowered her eyes and nodded.

Kate wrote the word ‘Amsterdam’ on the board in bold letters, and dismissed the team. Something didn’t feel right. The IP address being linked to Holland just didn’t fit with the picture.

‘Ma’am?’ Laura called over. ‘Ben’s on the phone. He says he’s ID’d the owner of the heart.’