And when you tell her, will she put her arms around you, her thin, white arms covered in plastic bracelets, chipped blue nail varnish, will she kiss you on that shining bald spot and say ‘Well done, Daddy. You’re my hero’? Is that what you think she’ll do?

,

MR BRADSHAW stares at him.

Or will she smile at you sadly, pity you, hate you even. And go back to getting them out for the lads because what else has she got to offer the world?

A pause. Then MR BRADSHAW suddenly laughs.

BRADSHAW. Bloody hell, what’s it like being you? Do you even like girls? Or is it water water everywhere and not a drop to drink? (To CHARLOTTE.) Bet he’s a right laugh, is he, sweetheart, when he’s not busy soliciting children?

AIDAN. WE DID NOT COERCE YOUR DAUGHTER. We did not go round to her house, with a gun, threatening violence, we don’t go out with a net to find girls like Carrie. We don’t have to. Why? Because they queue up. They come to us.

He glances at CHARLOTTE. She is standing very still, staring straight ahead.

That’s what girls like Charlotte here don’t like because it doesn’t fit, you see, it doesn’t fit. It’s not her idea of freedom, I’m sorry, Charlotte, but that’s what it is, it’s a choice. It is a freedom. So you see, don’t you, Mr Bradshaw? The truth of it is, we’re only leading your daughter around the town square because –

Well –

– in one way or another –

– she wants to be led.

CHARLOTTE quietly steps out of the room. BRADSHAW registers this. Looks back at AIDAN. Beat.

BRADSHAW. She seems a nice girl.

AIDAN. She’s a very nice girl.

BRADSHAW. Yeah?

AIDAN. Yes.

BRADSHAW stands, picks up the framed photograph from the desk, examines it.

BRADSHAW. Must be nice working in an environment with girls like that about. I used to work in pest control, all I saw was wasps’ nests and molehills all day.

MR BRADSHAW replaces the framed photograph on the desk, takes his phone out, takes a picture of AIDAN. AIDAN, disquieted by this.

AIDAN. Mr Bradshaw –