‘Mum.’ Sasha was getting frustrated. ‘I told you I’m not—’

But her mother had already rung off. Sasha gurned angrily at the phone, just as Karin and Michelle came over with a doctor, who introduced himself as a trauma consultant.

‘Mr Parkin is in a very bad way,’ he told Sasha while the others listened grimly. ‘He has physical injuries to his pelvis, spine and ribs from the point of impact, multiple internal injuries, and, I’m afraid, considerable swelling on the brain.’

‘Is he in any condition to talk?’ Simon was the only person who saw the abductor up close and may be able to provide vital descriptive details.’

‘He’s unconscious,’ said the doctor. ‘He’s been given a sedative and a paralytic to prevent movement, and we’ve placed him on a ventilator.’

‘And when will he be conscious?’

‘Not until we can bring the swelling down. A day or two, certainly not before that.’

‘Thank you,’ said Sasha, and the doctor strode away.

‘Simon is not my favourite person at the moment, I can tell you that, but I would never wish anything like this on him.’ Tears filmed Michelle’s eyes. ‘Paul, on the other hand, can rot in hell for what he did to Sammi.’

Sasha watched Michelle walk away, guessing that she was going to lock herself in a cubicle to gulp down vodka.

Karin glanced over to where Lydia was rocking on the seat. ‘Lydia came to see me last night.’

‘Okay.’

‘She said she was seeing somebody, she had a new boyfriend. I got the sense he had been asking about Simon and Paul and Michelle… and about me. About what happened to us all.’

‘You think he has some kind of agenda?’

‘It just seems odd that this man has come into her life out of nowhere. If she had known him for any length of time she would have told me about him before, unless he asked her not to. She said she met him at the drug drop-in centre where she goes for group counselling, it’s in Basildon. Lydia is fragile, always has been, and I’m worried about what he’s been asking… and what he’s been putting into her head.’

‘Let’s go and talk to her.’

Sasha and Karin went over to the corner where Lydia was sitting.

‘What?’ Lydia stared at them. ‘What’s going on?’

‘Tell Sasha what you told me last night.’ Karin perched on the seat beside her. ‘About Matt, your boyfriend.’

‘What’s it got to do with him?’ Lydia reared away from her. ‘You leave him out of it. He ain’t got nothing to do with this, yeah, any of it!’

Sitting down opposite, Sasha smiled. ‘I bet he’s really nice, Lydia. What’s his surname?’

‘What’s his name got to do with anything?’ Lydia began to rock anxiously. ‘Why did Karin tell you about him, why is she being so nasty?’