I SLEPT THAT night in a motel around fifteen miles from the trailer. Elise googled it. She also insisted on paying the $60.50 for the room. It was beyond basic. But the double bed didn’t sag. The air conditioner just about worked. And there was a television with all the channels. Elise gave me two more bottles of Corona to bring with me. She said that she was going to sleep on the sofa and, in turn, ensure that the plan she wanted to put into effect would take place the next morning. I think she was also concerned that, given Klara’s initial ferocious reaction to her news, she might try to do something radical in the middle of the night.

I was happy to get the hell out of that trailer. After the gunshot, the crying and wailing, then came the knock-down, drag-out exchange between Klara and Elise. It started with the pre-dinner announcement that Amber had decided to keep the baby. Or, at least, not to abort it before its birth. Klara was outraged – but needed to eat. As Amber came out of bed to join us we all tried to keep the conversation calm. Klara held back from saying anything else. Until after dinner – when Amber ate two pieces of the chocolate cake and accepted a mug of the herbal tea that Elise had also bought. Then she thanked us, hugging Klara and Elise, telling them both that she felt safe now. ‘I apologize for going totally crazy on you.’ When she finished the tea she crawled into bed and was asleep in moments.

That’s when Klara motioned to Elise that they should step outside. I said I was coming too – because I sensed they might need a referee and I was worried that Klara might go hothead on us … which is exactly what happened.

‘You some secret operative from the pro-life assholes?’ she hissed at Elise as the trailer door closed behind me.

‘If I can explain …’ Elise said.

‘Explain what? All the way here from LA Amber must have mentioned around ten times that, as soon as we got to the safe house, she wanted me to find a doctor who could end her pregnancy. Immediately. Then you spend ten minutes with her and suddenly she’s keeping the baby. It all smells bad to me.’

Klara’s tone was borderline angry and taunting. Elise did something remarkable. She came right up to her, face-to-face, and glared at her in a way that put me in mind of a headmistress who did not take kindly to being talked down to.