‘Donna wanted him to have everything. Not stuff, do you know what I mean?’ Angie looked at the other two women. ‘I could…well, I could nick anything she needed,’ she whispered, remembering who she was talking to, as if it mattered in the middle of such an unfolding tragedy. ‘But she wanted him to have a future. She only put him into nursery a couple of mornings a week because she’d read somewhere that it helped their development. She was always reading baby books, magazines, watching all the things that told you what stage they were at and what you should be doing for them. When he went to nursery she went to the library to read more. There were things everywhere–pictures and letters and colour blocks.’ As Angie spoke, Sam remembered the easel. ‘It was like Sesame Street in here! And he was smart–she made sure of it. He used to pick up toys in the shops like all the kids wanted, those teenage mutant turtle things and Ghostbusters toys…’ She laughed at the memories, then caught herself and went serious again. ‘But Donna was having none of it; they weren’t educational enough for her boy. Then, one day, when they came back from nursery, she had all of these leaflets. I remember her eyes were like saucers and she was all sort of lit up.’ Angie seemed to wander away in her own mind as she thought back.

Sam waited a little longer before pressing her. ‘What was it, Angie? What had happened?’

Angie stared at the police officer as if she resented being brought back to reality. ‘She’d got speaking to some woman at the library, told her about Matthew. This woman was there promoting some training thing and put ideas into Donna’s head–that’s how it all started. If she hadn’t spoken to that stupid bitch that day, Matthew would be here now. She told her about teacher training, working with kids, being a classroom assistant, being a nursery assistant, all these stupid ideas about what Donna could do. And she fell for it.’

‘Fell for it? What do you mean?’ asked Sam.

‘She decided to go. To Leeds. That was where there was funding for people like her, she was told. She could get her life on track and get a life for Matthew, too. All she had to do was go to this Open Day thing and speak to some people from a college and she’d have her life all sorted out…her whole fucking life sorted out…’ Angie started to sob.

‘And then?’ Sam prompted, stealing a glance at her watch. Not long until the news.