“I’ve been there myself,” Rosie said. “It can’t be helped.” She’d already set the recorder going, but she propped her feet on Jem’s chair, letting everyone relax and eat their snacks. The girls appeared to have rediscovered their mettle overnight. They were still pale and undernourished, but the beaten-down kids Jem had found cowering in a corner had been replaced by scrappy teenagers who swore like sailors and thought nothing of stealing chocolate from a police officer.

“I’m going to my nan’s,” Ava said through a mouthful of Crunchie. “Tonight, instead of going home.”

“Is that a good thing?” Rosie asked.

“Yeah, cos that prick Davey won’t be there. He’s my mam’s boyfriend. He’s already got four kids, but he knocked up my mam six weeks after moving in.”

Rosie took a swig of her Pepsi Max. “Was he the reason you ran away?”

Ava shrugged. “I bet they didn’t even notice I was gone. My nan’s ace, though. She stayed with us last night.”

“What about you, Chloe?” Jem asked. “Are you going home?”

Chloe nodded. “I told our Kirsty I was sorry for nicking her iPad, and she says she won’t set the coppers on me.” Her hand flew to her mouth as she stared at Rosie. “Shit. Fucking shit.”

Ava dropped her crisps and went to kneel by the wheelchair. “Rosie won’t tell, will you, Rosie?”

“Absolutely not,” Rosie said.

Jem’s eyes flicked from Ava to Chloe as she gauged their exchange, trying to work out their relationship. They were obviously close but seemed more akin to siblings than best friends.

“How long have you two known each other?” she asked, and wasn’t surprised when Chloe took Ava’s hand in lieu of providing an answer.

“About three weeks,” Ava ventured. “We got picked together.”

Rosie leaned forward slightly, the detail catching her attention. “Who picked you to do what?”

Chloe had started to tremble, her slippered feet clattering the wheelchair’s footplate. Ava squeezed onto the chair and pulled her close.

“We met down by the canal,” Ava said quietly. “All the kids go there after school, and you can crash in the mills if the smack rats aren’t around.”

“Ava was there before me,” Chloe said. She cupped her hands over Ava’s ear and whispered something inaudible.

Ava whispered a reply and then jutted out her chin and folded her arms. “If we tell you what we did, are you going to arrest us?” she asked Rosie.

“Did you murder anyone?” Rosie said, copying Ava’s pose as she threw the challenge back.

“No!” Ava looked horrified. “But we stole loads of things.”

“Do you promise to renounce your life of crime and become upstanding citizens?”

“Huh?” Chloe said.

Rosie pared things down to the essentials. “Will you be good from now on?”

Both girls nodded.