Resting her elbows on the table, Leanne leant forward until she was at eye level with Amelia. ‘I live on a boat,’ she said, as if she had all the time in the world for a cosy chat despite a looming deadline.

To her credit, she had submitted one of her articles to Mal that morning with five minutes to spare, and she didn’t expect him to throw this one back at her. She had emphasised Claudia’s loss and described her gritty determination to put the needs of others before her own, both on the night of the fire and through all the work she had done since. Claudia’s altruism was inspirational and seeing it in black and white had made it harder for Leanne to deny that she might actually be one of the good ones.

Amelia’s straw popped out of her mouth. ‘What’s it like? Do you live there all the time? Do you get seasick?’

‘Yes, I do live on it all the time and no I don’t get seasick, but I do suffer from land sickness now and again.’

‘What’s that?’

‘It’s where you step onto dry land, but you feel like you’re still bobbing up and down on the water. It can make you feel a bit wobbly,’ Leanne explained, swaying ever so slightly for effect.

When Amelia wrinkled her nose, Leanne knew what was coming. She hadn’t met a child yet who hadn’t asked the next question on Amelia’s lips.

‘Does it have a toilet? Does the poo get flushed into the canal?’

‘Amelia!’ her mum said.

‘It’s OK,’ Leanne replied, laughing. ‘Yes, it has a special toilet with a built-in cassette underneath for collecting the waste. You add chemicals so it doesn’t smell, or at least not too much, and when it has to be emptied, I use a trolley to take it to a disposal unit in the marina where I live. It’s basically a matter of emptying it into another toilet.’

‘Eugh!’

‘It’s not as bad as it sounds. And that’s probably more information than you need to know,’ Leanne said, pulling a face. ‘Why don’t you tell me more about you? I’d like to understand what happened at the theatre. Maybe we could start with why you went, what happened before the fire alarm, that sort of thing.’

‘One of Amelia’s school friends was in the production,’ Kathryn said, to encourage her daughter.

‘Evie,’ Amelia confirmed. ‘She was the white rabbit.’

‘Ah, yes,’ said Leanne. ‘I’ve seen her in video clips.’