So far, it was one long night, but it felt as if Liv had stayed in the hospital for a lifetime. Finn O’Connell’s heart had finally stabilised and he was breathing independently. Liv had a feeling her prayers (even though, she’d never been particularly religious!) were paying off. Next, they needed to investigate that bleeding from his ear and so they were moving him along for a full CT scan. Liv could only hope that it would show up clear. Regardless of how physically strong he looked, the choice between operating if there was internal bleeding and keeping his heart pumping was one that was too hard to call with any good odds in his favour.

‘Any sign of a phone?’ Joe, the EMT, asked. The next decisions should be down to his family, which meant they needed to track down his next of kin.

‘Hang on.’ Liv reached gingerly into Finn’s deep coat pocket. Again, the weirdest thing, to think she had been standing next to him – gazing into his eyes… yes, she could admit it, gazing at him only a few hours earlier and now, here she was rifling through his belongings. ‘I have it,’ she said, slipping the phone out easily. It was one of those finger recognition ones. She touched his finger to it. Bingo. She tapped in ICE, hoping there would be a contact number there that would make this easier. Nothing. ‘Damn,’ she said.

‘Okay, love,’ the older EMT said. ‘We’re on the move.’ He began to unclamp the bed so they could transfer him to radiology.

‘There’s no emergency contact,’ she said, but they weren’t listening to her. Instead, she was shepherded out of their way while they got on with bringing Finn O’Connell in to get him seen to as quickly as they could.

‘Try the last call he’s made or received,’ the younger of the men called to her.

‘Of course,’ she said. The last call was to a woman called Estelle – not M, so? She thought of that expensively wrapped little box and dialled the number for Estelle.

‘Hey, Finn.’ The voice was young on the other side, probably twenties, breathy and obviously happy to hear from this phone.

‘Hello, Estelle?’

‘Yes, sorry, who is this? I thought…’

‘No. It’s okay.’ Actually, it wasn’t, but it’s what you said, wasn’t it? ‘My name is Liv Latimer. I’m ringing you on Finn’s phone. He’s been in an accident and I’m trying to track down his next of kin. Can you tell me if…’

‘Finn. Oh no, is he all right? Where is he? When did it happen? How…’ There was the usual, understandable barrage of questions, the inability to wait for answers – it wasn’t the first time Liv had to make a call like this.