They created a separate pile just for Angela before tackling the penultimate file. Seeing the face of another teenager was too much for Leanne.

‘This is so wrong,’ she said, her voice becoming a hiss. ‘These people had lives to live, whether it could be counted in years or decades. They should be flesh and blood, not bits of paper.’

‘You’ll get no argument from me,’ Frankie said, closing the girl’s file with the same reverence she had given to the others. The youngster was another crush victim, which meant she too had been trapped following the collapse.

‘Nearly there,’ Leanne said, watching Frankie pull the last file towards her. They should be thankful that there weren’t more. Amelia’s details could so easily have been amongst Frankie’s files. Mal was right. They had to find this woman.

‘Lena Kowalski,’ said Frankie, turning a page. ‘She became separated from her fiancé quite early on. He was inconsolable when I spoke to him. Apparently they’d had an argument about which exit to use, and Lena chose one of the side exits. It’s not clear yet if she was hit by debris from the first ceiling collapse or later on. There were at least two other cave-ins, one that sealed off the last serviceable stairwell to the upper floor, and another directly over the stalls.’

Leanne checked the top sheet of information. ‘She was Polish?’

‘Living in the UK for five years.’

‘So she would have an accent,’ Leanne said, touching the file with the tip of her finger. ‘Amelia said her hero had a nice voice. I did ask if she had an accent, but she couldn’t say.’

‘Any voice must sound nice if you’re trapped in a burning building and someone wants to rescue you.’

‘True, but it certainly doesn’t eliminate her as a possibility.’ Leanne sat back and sipped her coffee as Frankie added the last folder to the new pile. ‘So we have to two potential candidates.’

‘Or it could be someone else entirely. There are lots of reasons why a person would choose not to come forward,’ added Frankie. ‘Not everyone wants to bare their soul to the press. I haven’t spoken to a single survivor who wasn’t traumatised in some way. They each have their own story, and pulling Amelia from the rubble might be only one small part of her rescuer’s. Who knows what else happened to her?’

‘But I promised Amelia I’d help find her hero. What do I do if I can’t get beyond a shortlist?’ asked Leanne despairingly. ‘I’m not sure there’s anything I can write that will add to the attempts Kathryn Parker has made already.’

‘Want my advice?’

‘Yes, please.’