She slipped out and found the night sister, and after a short conversation, returned to the boy. ‘Sorted.’ She smiled at him. ‘You, young man, are going to get some proper sleep …’ the door opened and a nurse entered carrying in a smart fold-up bed and some brightly coloured pillows and covers, ‘… and so am I! We’re in this together. Okay, Private Jonas, old buddy?’

Mickey/Jonas gave her a relieved smile, pulled the bedcovers closer to him, then saluted. ‘Understood, Inspector Nik!’

The night nurse woke her as arranged, just before dawn.

After several hours spent in a camp bed, laying next to a boy who had more bruises than a bare-knuckle fighter, Nikki had not expected to wake up feeling good. In fact, she hadn’t expected to even sleep. But she had. And she felt very good. She had dreaded going back to her miserable flat, a place that was only inhabited by her own dark thoughts, and Mickey’s night fears had provided her with the perfect compromise.

The boy had slept soundly too, and the weak light of dawn through his window seemed to melt away his earlier terrors. Nikki felt happy to leave him. His distress had been out of proportion, but considering what had happened to him he had every reason to be scared, and there was always the outside chance, a million to one maybe, that one of the gang had sussed out their deception and decided to close his chatty little mouth forever. She didn’t think that was the case for one minute, but she was still happy with the decision that she had made.

She left him with promises that she would keep him updated with news of Joseph, and that she would return at the end of the day to visit him. As she stepped out into the corridor and looked back, she saw the pathetic, bandaged child, and a feeling of intense emotion flooded through her. Some sort of a bond had developed between them when they had spoken about Joseph. Something she couldn’t define, but she knew that Mickey had allowed her in, and she felt almost humbled because of it.

She waved to him, and he gave her a thumbs up.

‘You really helped him, you know.’ The nurse lightly touched her arm. ‘He’d been agitated all evening. We were considering a sedative, but we prefer not to with paediatric head injuries.’ She looked back through the doorway. ‘He looks a different boy now. You and that nice sergeant make a good team! You both seem to have the knack with a problem child.’

As the nurse walked off, Nikki smiled in amusement. Her previous reputation with young tearaways had been far from creditable. In fact, most of her colleagues liked to keep her at least 100 metres from anything in trainers, jeans and a hoody! This was something of a first.