‘I don’t know,’ said Robin, frank. ‘I give you my word. I used to be police.’ How lame that sounded. ‘And if it matters, which maybe it does, I’m not police any more.’

‘Because someone I care about, a friend, could get in serious shit if …’

‘With the law?’

Tarryn shook her head quickly, dismissive. She looked around again then lowered her voice. ‘This friend – I want to help her but I don’t know how. She was the one who told me about the woman. She made me promise …’

‘It’s not Becca?’

Another head-shake.

‘Okay, look. Whatever you tell me, I won’t do anything to endanger your friend. I promise. You can count on that. On me.’

Tarryn gave her another appraising look then nodded in the direction of the trees. They moved back a few feet, away from the road and the flow of foot traffic.

‘When I came here, Birmingham, I got a room in a flat-share,’ she said. Her voice wasn’t much above a whisper now; close as she was standing, Robin strained to hear. ‘One of the girls there worked at The Spot. That’s how I found the job here, she recommended me.

‘One night, we were at home watching TV when the door went and these two blokes forced their way up the stairs. Rough blokes – really scary. They were from a collection agency – my friend had a pay-day loan and she couldn’t make the repayments. She was scared shitless, she’s only twenty-three. They went into her room, went through all her things, her dressing table. She started crying, she thought they were going to take the jewellery her mum left her, we were all begging them, but then one of them looked at her and muttered to the other one. He laughed – I don’t know if it was that horrible at the time or because of what happened after … Then they left – just like that. Dropped everything and went.’

Robin waited.

‘But they were back the next day. Only one of the first guys but he’d brought his boss. I wasn’t there, I had a shift, but I could tell something had gone on the moment I came through the door. All he’d done was talk, she said, and look at her and tell her how difficult it was to pay money back once you’d got into trouble, the interest going up and up and up. He’d said he could help her.’

A couple walked by. Tarryn waited until they’d passed.