Adam took the hint and crouched next to her. ‘What’s your name, pal?’ he asked. Was ‘pal’ more of a grooming word than ‘mate’? Either way, Jessica thought it was a good question, something she certainly would have asked if he had been an adult. She wondered why it had eluded her.

‘Corey.’

It didn’t sound particularly Mancunian, but Jessica assumed at least one of his parents had picked it up from an American or Australian television show. It was one step away from ‘Chad’, ‘Bubba’, ‘Buddy’, or something with ‘the Third’ on the end of it.

‘How old are you, Corey?’ Adam continued.

‘Seven.’

‘Right, shall we go find your mummy?’ Adam held out his hand for Corey to take and then started walking towards the play park.

Jessica felt a little embarrassed at not having thought of the obvious solution herself. As they walked across the grass, Adam kept the boy talking, asking what kinds of things he was interested in and whereabouts he lived. If he offered the kid sweets, she’d probably have to arrest him.

‘What happened to your hands, Corey?’ Jessica asked.

‘I fell off the swings.’

‘Is that when you went looking for your mum?’

The boy nodded, before Jessica realised Adam was trying to steer the conversation away from anything that could further upset him.

The play area wasn’t full but there were a few dozen children running around. Adam walked around the edge with Corey, looking from side to side and asking if the boy could see his mother. After one lap, it became clear she wasn’t there. The child had told them his mum had ‘yellow’ hair and was wearing a red coat. Adam suggested that one of them stay with Corey, while the other went off to check the car park and security office. For a moment, Jessica thought he was going to suggest that she stay but, maybe thanks to the panic on her face, he said he would wait.

Jessica first checked the car park but, aside from a group of men in football kit changing their shoes, there was no one else around. The park’s office was on the far side of the field, leaving her navigating around the wettest parts. To make matters worse, after she finally reached the other side, a large sign next to the door read ‘Closed on Sundays’ and the only person anywhere near her was a man walking a dog.

Jessica used the path to return to the park which was technically a longer route but took less time because she wasn’t having to walk around the squelchy parts of the field.

Any hopes that things would already be resolved were dashed as she arrived back at the play park to see Adam waiting just inside the gate with Corey at his side. She gave a slight shake of her head as he noticed her but, unfortunately, the child saw it too. Jessica watched his face fall as Adam crouched and rested an arm on his shoulder.

‘I’m sure she’ll be along any minute,’ Adam said as hopefully as he could.

Jessica wanted to ask him what to do next but didn’t want to say it out loud. She could feel the wind getting stronger as a few parents passed her on their way out of the gate, clearly worried about the gathering clouds overhead. As Jessica turned to watch them go, she saw a woman with blonde hair and a red coat in the distance. She was strolling, chatting to a man who towered over her.

‘Ad,’ Jess said to get his attention, then nodded in the direction of the couple.

As soon as Corey noticed them, he let out a yelp and began running in their direction. Jessica and Adam followed at a distance and, by the time they had caught up, the child was busy hugging the woman’s leg.

‘Get off,’ she said irritably.

‘Are you all right, Corey?’ Adam asked.

The boy let go with one arm but held on with the other and turned to face Adam, nodding enthusiastically.

‘Who the fuck are you?’ the woman said in a strong local accent, glaring at Jessica, even though it was Adam who had spoken. In some areas of Manchester, that was as polite a welcome as you’d get. She was holding a cigarette with one hand and the man had taken a step away.

Jessica was about to respond in kind but Adam got in first. ‘We’ve been waiting with Corey because he fell over and couldn’t find his mother.’ His tone was steady and calm, definitely not the way Jessica would have replied.

The woman glanced down at her child, then returned to staring at Jessica. ‘Are you all right, Core?’ she asked, without a second look.

‘My hands hurt,’ Corey replied.

His mother still didn’t look down. ‘We’ll have a look when we get home,’ she said, before offering a far more aggressive, ‘What?’ in Jessica’s direction.

Adam again jumped in ahead of her. ‘Nothing, we’re just glad he found you safely. You’ve got a lovely young man there.’

Finally the woman stopped looking at Jessica, turning towards Adam and sneering, ‘Fuck off, you paedo prick. Is this what you do? Go around touching up kids?’

Jessica watched Corey bury his head further into his mum’s leg, which she twitched to free herself.

The woman turned to leave with a final, ‘And what have I told you about talking to strangers?’ as she started to walk back the way she had come.

Jessica was about to step in but Adam placed one hand on her shoulder. ‘Don’t,’ he said authoritatively. She was stunned not by the way he was holding her, or by what he said, but instead by the way he said it. She was used to him joking with her, even being jumpy on occasion, but had never heard him speak with such weight.

Once Corey and the two adults were around fifty metres ahead, Adam started following them, Jessica falling in step next to him. ‘Where are we going?’ she asked.

‘I’m hoping she’s going to get into a car and that we can get the number plate,’ Adam said. ‘With that and Corey’s name, you should be able to get her name and we can get onto social services.’

‘We’re not supposed to use the system for that . . .’

‘You can ask someone senior, though, after what we just saw?’

Adam’s question sounded so matter-of-fact that Jessica couldn’t help but answer positively. As they kept their distance from the couple, she added: ‘How did you know what to do?’

‘When?’

‘With Corey when we first saw him.’

Adam didn’t break stride, even though it started to spot with rain. ‘I don’t know. How do you know what to do in your job? How do you know what to say when you’re with a suspect or a victim?’

‘I don’t know . . . I just do.’

‘Exactly.’

‘But he was just a child.’

Jessica glanced sideways and, even though there was a look of serious concentration on Adam’s face, he still broke into a grin. ‘He’s still a person, Jess, just a little one. You treat them the same. What would you have done if it was a lost adult? You would have found a way.’

Although she started to protest, Jessica stopped herself. Somehow she had reached her mid-thirties without figuring that out. She tried to think of the children she’d had contact with in the past few years and realised it was only really Izzy’s baby she’d spent even a small amount of time with – and she seemed to sleep a lot. Most of her immediate network of friends consisted of people who were childless.

Lost in her thoughts, Jessica bumped into the back of Adam as he stopped at the edge of the pathway which led into the car park. He went to move forward but Jessica stopped him. ‘I’ll go.’

Adam sat on the nearby bench as Jessica ducked behind a hatchback and edged around the tarmac. She could see Corey getting into the back seat of a car, his mother standing impatiently next to him holding the front seat forward. When he was in, she climbed in herself and blew a kiss to the man who had been with her as he got into the adjacent vehicle. Jessica could guess what was going on and typed both number plates into her phone, thinking she would do a bit of digging and if a social services query didn’t get her anywhere, then there might be an anonymous letter or two ready to give someone a surprise.