At first they wouldn’t tell me about the girl. The nurse at reception established that I wasn’t family, therefore I couldn’t know, but eventually relented in the face of my evident distress. A harried doctor came to talk to me; wearily he looked at my face and asked what had happened to me. I’d forgotten about my own bruise. I’d covered it so carefully for the party with makeup that had apparently now worn off.

‘It doesn’t look very hopeful,’ he said quietly about the girl, and asked me if I knew how to contact her family. Before I could answer, the crash-cart came racing down the corridor and the doctor went running.

I sat alone in the waiting area, drinking tepid coffee and trying to think straight. I still had no idea who had taken James. After he’d been manhandled out of the house and all hell had broken loose, I’d shooed everyone away into other rooms. I’d quickly seen that Star was far too drunk to accompany her injured friend to hospital, and out of frantic guilt, I’d left the kids with Domino and Jen and ridden behind in the ambulance.

Two hours later, I still didn’t know where James was; his phone was ringing out – and now Liam, whom I’d left in charge of the guests, wasn’t answering his mobile either.

And then the doctor who I’d just spoken to appeared from behind the rapidly drawn curtains and walked towards me, head bowed in exhaustion.

I couldn’t believe Katya had died. I just sat in the neon-lit corridor on an orange chair, in shock, my mind racing. Sparkles from her costume on the corridor floor caught the overhead lights, twinkling incongruously against the well-trodden lino. Rational thought seemed impossible, but I promised the staff I’d get them her details as soon as I could, and then I called a cab and went back to the house; the house that seemed even less like home.

The children were sleeping, thank God, and the guests had all gone apart from the few who’d passed out in drunken disarray. Jen was still up. She grasped my hands and told me there was still no news of James.

‘I’m sure he’ll be fine. You know James,’ she soothed, and made me tea, hugging me for a silent moment before going to bed herself.