Alan, who had died several years earlier, had apparently believed Violet wanted no contact.

The documents suggested confusion and bureaucratic failures on both sides.

There were poor decisions too, but not the clean villainous plot each side had imagined.

“That is almost harder,” Violet told me during a visit.

“If someone had stolen Lucy, I would know where to put my anger.

Instead there were people who thought someone else had made the call.”

Paige listened carefully.