‘That laptop was new, you pigs!’ the other howled.

Kelly didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. She’d saved two exploited young women who had been subjected to horrific ordeals, presumably for cash reward, but they didn’t show any display of relief, or even some indication that they wanted to leave the flat. It was a strange sensation and one she’d come across before. It was similar to Stockholm syndrome, where captives form real relationships with their captors. It would appear that Chloe and Sasha saw what they did as legitimate work, and Kelly had just blown it for them. She stood back as the ART members, trained in the highest paramedic aid, assessed them.

‘Fucking get off!’ one barked.

‘Get off, you pervert!’ the other kicked out.

‘Let me,’ she said gently, ignoring the irony, and the officers stood back. She approached the two girls, as Fabian was walked past her and out into the open, to be taken to Eden House. George would have to wait for an ambulance, but he’d spend the night strapped to a bed with a police guard outside his room. She spoke softly to the girls, and explained what was happening, after establishing that they were unharmed.

‘You can go home as soon as you’ve been assessed by our team,’ she said.

‘Assessed for what?’ one asked.

‘I’m not going fucking home,’ the other said.

Kelly had no idea, yet, which girl was which. She hoped that, by now, the child protection team had arrived and the girls would be taken by them. She knew it was quite normal for victims to lash out at those taking them away from a familiar situation. She looked around the pokey flat. There was evidence of takeaways, TV, new phones, and the girls had been sprawled in a leisurely manner across the bed when they’d been apprehended. There was no evidence they’d been held against their will. The sad truth was that they saw this life as their future, not something to be rescued from.

There was no point explaining to the two girls why George had been arrested – not yet, at least. That would unfold all in good time. Her job, starting right away, was to figure out the relationship between Vivienne Kennedy-Craig and George Fellows. How much Fabian knew remained to be seen. Three child protection officers arrived, as George was receiving emergency care, and howling in the meantime, and got the same welcome she had.

‘Get your fucking hands off me!’ one girl shouted.

‘Who the fuck are you?’ the other said.