‘There was hope, you know,’ Sharon continued. ‘Callie’s going to wake up on her own, we’re going to get her back. Just this morning she reacted to me being here … I was so happy! But now … I’ve been thinking this last day or two about how we recover from this, how we limit the damage to her and to her younger brother when she does come back to us. How we might get some of that time back where they can just be kids. Danny and I … This whole thing has ripped us apart. These last few days when I couldn’t get hold of him I realised how much I need him. We all do. The only way back from this is if we’re all together. Danny has to be here. We have to try and be as close to when it was good as we can. And now you come here and tell me …’ Sharon couldn’t speak. She couldn’t cry either. She felt like her jaw had seized up, pressure building behind it. She rubbed her hands over her face. When she dropped them back into her lap she felt the officer take hold of them. His tone was at its softest yet.

‘I need to show you something. It’s not pleasant, I know none of this is. He left a note.’

Sharon sucked in a shallow breath and held onto it. Her free hand was back to cover her mouth. She watched as the inspector took a piece of paper out of his pocket and unfolded it to lay it in her hand. She hesitated. Finally she moved it close enough to read. She could see typed words but her eyes had blurred with tears. She didn’t look at it, not straightaway, just held it in her hand for a moment until she could breathe again. When she did run her eyes over it nothing was going in. She had to read it twice, then a third time for it to start to mean anything.

‘What is this? This isn’t Danny, it doesn’t even sound like Danny! Who typed this?’

‘It’s a copy of what was left for us to find. I brought it with me because I needed to know what your reaction would be.’

‘This isn’t him. Simple. What’s this about him hurting someone? Danny doesn’t hurt people.’

‘I had a little look at his history. There was an assault back in—’