Watching the team gathering around the dry-wipe board, Kate was pleased to hear the energy in their chatter; it meant they were switched on and ready for the task ahead of them. It was just after seven, and Inspector Bentley had agreed to half a dozen of his uniformed officers supporting her investigation over the weekend, but she was certain it had been the supe’s word in his ear, rather than her own plea, that had led to his agreement.

‘Morning,’ Kate offered, cutting the chatter instantly. ‘I take it you all managed to get at least a few hours’ sleep last night; we have a busy day ahead of us. As you all know, Patel and I stumbled upon a horrific scene last night at St Bartholomew’s school, where missing teenager Daisy Emerson is a pupil. A human foot was located, and as yet we can’t be sure whether it was left at the scene on purpose or by accident. Given where it was located in the room, it seems likely that our suspect missed it in the clean-up, but you know my motto—’

‘Assume nothing,’ the group bellowed in unison.

Kate smiled. ‘Exactly!’

‘Do we know whose foot it is?’ Laura piped up.

‘SSD have yet to find a match to anyone on the system, which brings us back to our missing teenager. We know the foot belonged to a female victim, under the age of twenty. I have the unenviable task of visiting her parents this morning to obtain a sample of DNA to compare with the foot. There is nothing, so far, to suggest that Daisy returned to the school after she left Georgie’s house on Friday night, but that’s an angle I want thoroughly examined. Georgie’s house is on Abbotts Way in Portswood, which is a mile and a half from St Bartholomew’s.’ Kate pointed to a map she’d stuck on the board behind her. ‘I’ve marked the three most direct routes on foot from Georgie’s house to the school, and I want one of you to walk those routes today, looking for any evidence that Daisy may have headed that way. I also want you to look for security cameras along the three routes.’

The hand of a young officer thrust into the air. ‘I can do that.’

Kate looked at the young PC, and nodded her acknowledgement. ‘It’s PC Barnes, isn’t it?’

‘Yes, ma’am,’ he smiled, visibly pleased she’d remembered his name. Kate knew he was due to sit his detective examination in the next couple of months and relished any opportunity to gain valuable experience.

‘Good,’ Kate said, writing his name on the board next to the task. ‘There are also three possible routes that Daisy could have taken walking home from Georgie’s house. I want two officers stationed at key intersections of each route, showing passers-by the picture of Daisy and asking whether they remember seeing her last Friday. I also want another couple going house-to-house and ensuring we’ve managed to speak to every possible resident who might have seen her. I appreciate it’s a long-shot, but it will help rule out the possibility that she was snatched by someone on her way home. If you get no answer, make a note of the address and we’ll try again tomorrow.’

She paused, reaching for her mug of coffee and taking a gulp. ‘Speaking of which, I want two more officers on the university’s Highfield and Avenue campuses. Not all students watch the news or read newspapers, so we need to make sure they’re aware we have a vulnerable missing child out there. Daisy would have crossed Highfield Lane on her journey home, and that is part of the student route from halls of residence to the clubs and bars in Bevois Valley. We don’t have any reason to believe she would run away, but let’s be clear, until the evidence points us in another direction, we will continue to treat her disappearance as a runaway. So we need to find anyone who can confirm she actually attempted to make the journey home.’

‘I still think there’s more to the parents,’ DS Phil Humberidge interrupted. ‘Nine times out of ten the parents are involved, you know that as well as I do.’

In his mid-fifties, with a full head of white hair, DS Phil Humberidge was counting the days until he could take early retirement and focus on his hobby of painting landscapes.

‘We have no reason to believe that any harm has come to Daisy, and until we do, I will handle her parents.’

Humberidge raised his hands in mock surrender. ‘I was just saying.’

Kate fired him a warning look, knowing that if it was Chloe who’d gone missing, she’d cling to the hope of finding her until the very last moment.

‘Do we know if her bank card has been used since Friday?’ Patel interjected.

DC Ewan Freeborn raised his hand into the air. ‘Nothing yet. The bank has been alerted to look out for any movement on her accounts, and will call us the second they have something.’ Freeborn was the latest recruit to the team. He was slightly built with glasses and a quiff that wouldn’t have been amiss in the fifties, but he had a good head between his shoulders – a natural analyst – and was already proving himself a useful addition to the unit.

‘Good,’ Kate acknowledged. ‘Where are we with her phone and social media activity?’

Freeborn shook his head. ‘As we know, her phone has been switched off since nine twenty the night she went missing, and she hasn’t been active on Facebook, or Twitter since then either.’

‘And do we know what time she last accessed her profiles?’ Kate pushed, hoping it might stretch the timeline of events.

‘Ten minutes past nine,’ Freeborn confirmed. ‘Which ties in with Georgie’s statement that Daisy left the house at quarter past.’

‘I want someone to go over that statement with Georgie Barclay again. Did Daisy give any clue that she might run away? Was anything troubling her at school or in her personal life? We know she had a boyfriend, but was she seeing anyone else on the side? Was she active in any online groups her parents weren’t aware of?’

‘I don’t mind speaking to the Barclay girl,’ Laura offered.

‘Thanks, Laura, try and do it today, if you can? Patel,’ she said, making eye contact with him, ‘I want you to pull in Daisy’s boyfriend for a quiet chat. You don’t need to arrest him, but bring him down to the station so it’s a bit more formal. He’s three years older than Daisy, and while I’m not saying he has anything to hide, I think with gentle persuasion he’ll tell us a lot more than he has to date. Like, for example, what he and Daisy argued about at the ice-cream parlour earlier that afternoon? We have a waitress who witnessed Daisy in tears.’

Patel nodded his understanding.

‘Everyone else is to focus on our new investigation.’ Kate stepped to the far side of the board and pointed at the picture of the foot. ‘All we know so far is this foot was severed using an electric handsaw with a rotating blade, like a pizza cutter. DC Rogers will be speaking with local DIY and hardware stores today to find a list of purchasers. I want the rest of you to split the list of teachers between you. Make contact with each – ideally face-to-face – and establish if they have witnessed anything unusual or anybody acting suspiciously in the vicinity of the school in the past week. I’m going to follow up with the third-party contractors who had reason to be at the school: the groundsman, cleaners, photocopy engineer and building inspector.’ Kate paused. ‘Where’s Olly Quinlan? Has anyone seen him this morning?’

The sea of faces shook their heads.

Kate leaned closer to Patel. ‘Olly was supposed to be on the security-camera footage from the entrance to the school and any nearby businesses. See if you can get hold of him, and find out why he isn’t here.’ She turned back to Laura. ‘How did SSD get on with examining the caretaker’s keypad?’

Laura referred to her notes. ‘Only one set of prints were recovered from the internal and external keypads, and they’ve been confirmed as belonging to Mr Linus, who voluntarily provided a sample for comparison. There were no discernible footprints that could be recovered from the ground surrounding that private gate.’

Any potential lead not panning out was a disappointment, but at least in this case it meant the team could concentrate on the two entrances that were protected by security cameras.

Kate finished her coffee as she watched the group disperse. It was odd that Quinlan hadn’t showed. Watching hours of monotonous security camera footage was one of the worst parts of the job, but it was a vital component in most successful investigations and he hadn’t even reported in to say he’d managed to secure the feeds from the school. When he showed, he’d have to have a good explanation for his absence.

‘Mrs Barclay said she’s taking Georgie to her grandmother’s this morning, but will be back this afternoon,’ Laura said, snapping Kate’s attention back to the office. ‘Do you want some company with Daisy’s parents?’

Kate had been dreading the possibility that the time would come when they needed to request a DNA sample for comparison. She nodded, welcoming Laura’s offer of support.