There had been a little place near the station advertising bed and breakfasts. She’d go there. She got up and walked off. Ryan had difficulty keeping up and began to cry so she gave him a shake. ‘Shut up!’ She wasn’t having people staring at her, thinking she was a bad mother.

‘Want to wee-wee.’

‘Not again!’

He clutched himself and with a sigh she turned round and went back towards the public conveniences they’d just passed.

‘We might as well all go,’ she said brightly as they went into the ladies’.

It was as she was pulling up Ryan’s trousers that she saw Hayley go and stand in the doorway. ‘Come back.’ When her daughter didn’t obey, she pushed Ryan aside and clouted the little girl across the ear, then clouted her again for good measure. ‘Do as you’re bloody well told!’

Since it had clouded over, dusk was far enough advanced now to make lights come on automatically both outside and inside the public convenience. They showed Hayley clearly when she came to the doorway and stared wistfully across the park. They also showed her mother appearing behind her, yelling.

Gail smacked the little girl across the head so hard she knocked her back against the wall with a bump, then hit her again.

Outraged, Andi began to run towards the toilets. ‘Stop that! Leave the child alone.’

Her cap fell off her head and Hayley yelled, ‘Andi! Andi, I want to go home to Daddy.’

Gail shoved her daughter inside again, pulled out a knife and held it threateningly.

Andi stopped dead.

‘Whoever you are, stay away from her or I’ll not be answerable. Who the hell are you anyway?’

‘I’m a babysitter. I’ve looked after the children. They – um, look tired. Do you want me to take them home for you?’

‘No, I damned well don’t. I’m their mother and I say what happens to them. I’m waiting for their father to come and pick us up, so you just bugger off and mind your own business.’

It was clear that she could do nothing against a knife so Andi backed away. ‘Sorry. I didn’t know you were their mother.’

She walked until she was out of sight then stopped to peer round the corner of a nearby building that looked like a storage shed. She was in shadow and didn’t think Gail would be able to see her.

There was no sign of either Gail or the children anywhere. Had they gone back inside the toilets or had they gone in the other direction? She didn’t dare try to find out. Pulling out her phone, she rang the number she’d been given and reported what had just happened.

‘They won’t get out of the park,’ the voice told her. ‘We’ve got people stationed at every gate. We’ve been clearing the public from the area. Please, Miss Carr, stay away from that woman from now on.’

‘I will. But hurry, please. She’s hitting them and she sounds drunk.’