In the bathroom, she splashed water on her face. The bump on her head looked red and angry. She gingerly poked it, and it stung. When she got back downstairs, Ursula was sitting with her hands in her lap.

‘Go to bed, Mum.’

‘I can’t sleep now.’

She fell into an armchair, pressed her fingers to the closed lids of her eyes. Thinking about Kev, thinking about her mum and dad, and about Angel getting bullied at school; about Sammi and Lucas, wondering where they were, imagining their terror. She was letting them down, letting them all down.

‘Would you like a cup of tea?’ asked Ursula.

Sasha didn’t even open her eyes. ‘Besides everything else that’s happened, what I don’t understand is why you would tell our neighbour, a man who hates us, intimate, personal details about our lives?’

Ursula looked uncomfortable. ‘I thought it would break the ice.’

‘Break the ice,’ Sasha repeated, incredulous.

Sasha waited patiently for an apology to come from her mum but knew she wasn’t going to get one. Not from her mother, not in this life. Instead, Ursula picked up her empty mug and left the room.

Sasha jumped up to follow her into the kitchen. She felt her anger building, knew she had to be careful because she was spoiling for a row. ‘That man has been trouble ever since he moved in.’

‘That’s the difference between us,’ said Ursula, rinsing the mug. ‘I see the good in people. But in your job, with all the criminals and ne’er-do-wells you meet, you see too much of the worst of human nature. It’s not good for your soul.’

‘Leave my soul out of it. You told our troublesome neighbour the most private, upsetting thing about us, about… Jake. Information he couldn’t wait to throw back in our faces.’

‘I’m sorry if I’ve stuck my nose in where it’s not wanted.’ Her mother placed the mug upside down on the draining board and began to rinse another one. The kitchen was spotless, you’d never have known they’d had a barbecue only a few hours ago.

‘For God’s sake, Mum,’ she snapped. ‘Tidy up in the morning.’

‘I want to do it now.’

Ursula’s hands rubbed the inside of the cup beneath the spray of water, which thumped against the bottom of the sink and made Sasha’s head throb. She grabbed the cup and slammed it down on the counter, turned off the tap.

‘In the morning!’

Ursula looked forlornly at the mug. ‘Perhaps I should leave.’

‘To go home?’ asked Sasha hopefully.

‘I don’t think I’ll be able to afford a hotel. Maybe a hostel or a refuge will take me in.’

‘Oh, stop playing the victim, I’m not going to throw you out!’ Sasha dropped on to one of the stools at the counter.