I sat forward on the wide, slippery seat and put my head close to the window, turning my face into the wind. My eyes and nose began to water but I pushed my head further out and wondered what else my dear, funny, lovely old father would have recommended for this situation. The wind fell away as we pulled up at a red light.

‘You OK, Danny?’

‘Yeah. I’m OK, I just—’ I scrubbed at my eyes with my sleeve. ‘I’d just really like to find Wolfie, that’s all.’ My eyes met Jaz’s in the rear-view mirror, and she gave a short, sharp nod.

‘I know, mate. Look, I can’t promise you we’ll find her, but I can promise you I’ll give it my best. You’re in good hands.’

The thing was, I did feel like I was in good hands, but with the best will in the world, if Wolfie was holed up in a cafe, if she’d jumped on a Tube or a bus to God knows where, to do God knows what, the chances of finding her were slim to none.

Jaz crossed something off on her little map, and I slid back down into my seat as we crawled around West London like a couple of snowflakes in a hurricane.

44

Wolfie

I have sixteen missed calls from Lou and four from Dom. When I see the notifications, my chest contracts elastically a few times, and I wonder if I can just lie back down among the litter and duck poo for a bit and see what happens.

I’m still holding my phone when it starts to vibrate. It’s a number I don’t recognise and when I swipe and put it to my ear, I listen to Jay from EE with his kind offer of a handset upgrade. He gives up after a few attempts to make me talk, but I keep the phone pressed to my ear and look up at the concrete sky and wonder about those minutes I was gone.

A throaty cough, very close, makes me almost jump out of my skin.

‘You all right, girl?’

I turn my head and see a huge moth silhouetted against the light. When I put my hand up to shade my eyes, it comes into view properly – much more human, a man wrapped in a tartan blanket, both arms held away from his sides, bottle of something hanging from one hand. I should probably stand up, but being low almost feels like an advantage at this point.

‘What do you want? Have you been watching me?’ I feel my heart rate ramping up, but the moth man looks more amused than dangerous.

‘I was here first, love.’ He indicates with his head over his shoulder into the shadows, where I hadn’t noticed a shanty townhouse made of boxes and rusted shopping trolleys. One trolley is on its side, slightly apart from the rest. It looks like it’s meant to be the garden shed and it instantly makes me think of Danny.