She needed to find out more about him, and now was as good a time as any.

She sidled up to him.

‘What’s going on?’ she asked.

He looked down at her blankly for a few moments, then a twinkle of recognition lit up in his eyes.

‘Satpal set her mattress alight. Again. This is the third time this year. She’s in for arson. Guess the rehabilitation’s not working.’

‘How long before we can go back in again?’

He looked at his watch. ‘Probably be here quite a while. We’ve got to wait for the fire brigade to get here and declare it safe. At least it’s a warm evening.’

He was right. There was a definite balmy feel to the air. She lit up her digital watch to look at the date. It was 2nd July. It was getting into summer. The idea of being cooped up in this place over sunny summertime didn’t hold much appeal for her.

‘Jesus,’ she muttered to herself.

‘What is it?’ he said.

‘I’ve been in here a month and a half already.’

‘Time flies when you’re having fun,’ he said with a smile, his eyes crinkling in that way she liked. She couldn’t help but smile back.

She studied him for a few moments. Perhaps here in the darkness he’d have less inhibition about talking to her. Maybe he’d open up a little. She drew closer to him.

‘What was Afghanistan like?’ she asked.

He looked at her silently for a few moments. In the shadows it was hard to make out the expression on his face.

‘You don’t want to know,’ he muttered.

‘You fought the Taliban, right?’

At her mention of the Taliban, he made a derogatory spitting sound and looked away. But she persisted.

‘They sounded pretty barbaric from what I saw on the news.’

He turned to face her again. ‘That’s an understatement. They didn’t take no prisoners, that was for sure. And when they did capture our guys…’ he paused, his jaw clenching and unclenching, ‘…they did some terrible things. Tortured them. Mutilated them. Cut bits off them. They hung body parts in the trees to provoke us, to taunt us. Legs, arms, heads. All booby-trapped so you couldn’t do anything about it.’ He shook his head in disgust. ‘You didn’t hear about it back home. Bad PR if you know what I mean.’

‘Urgh! I had no idea,’ said Bailey.

She was horrified by the images he was conjuring up, found it shocking to think that the man standing right in front of her had seen and experienced these terrible things. As a policewoman, she’d seen her fair share of unpleasant scenes. It was to be expected to a certain extent when you signed up for that kind of job. However, she’d seen nothing remotely as gruesome as what he was describing.

She looked at him as he gazed off into the distance at the prison towering above them. He inhaled and exhaled slowly, then turned to look directly at her, his face taking on a steely set.