‘No, no … nothing like that, you don’t understand.’ She shook her head, more mumbles, more thoughts tumbling out of her mouth. ‘My Nicholas and my Emma … He loves her, he’s always loved her, he would do anything for her.’ She stepped in close again, her voice back to a murmur. ‘You can’t always keep the things you love, not so close, not like that. We couldn’t tell him, not about what she did, what she was forced to do …’

‘Nicholas doesn’t know that Emma sent images of herself?’ Joel said.

Marilyn suddenly looked up as if she had woken from a trance, fear in her eyes. ‘He knows! I’ve never seen a man so angry. Emma thought … she thought he was angry at her, he thought this was all her fault. It was the last thing, the pressure of it all … My Emma – she couldn’t cope. She’s on a secure ward now …’ She spun back into more pacing, her voice louder. ‘They said she’s had a full breakdown, that she presents like someone who’s seen a terrible thing … But there’s lots of colour there, that’s what I thought the moment I went in there. Bright and lots of colour. I took her favourite teddy and she took it so tight like when she was five years old. They never stop being your baby, do they?’

‘They don’t,’ Joel agreed. ‘DC Ribbons was working hard, she’d started the ball rolling to get you moved—’

‘It doesn’t matter now! With Emma where she is we can’t … we couldn’t leave. Hannah knew that.’

‘You look ready to leave to me.’

‘Everything ready, everything boxed,’ she muttered it twice with the cadence of a nursery rhyme.

‘And you were going to talk to DC Ribbons, to tell her something about Nicholas. Maybe you were going to tell her why you’re so scared. Does he beat you?’

‘Nicholas loves us. He loves his family. The kids … they don’t deserve … Our children are innocent.’ She fixed on Joel, lingering for a moment, her utter desperation clear. ‘And you have to go, you have to go now.’

‘Did Hannah ever speak to him?’ DS Rose cut in. She took a step forward like she wanted to increase the pressure.

‘No. He didn’t want the police, not ever.’

‘His daughter was blackmailed by a paedophile and he didn’t want the police involved?’ DS Rose said.

‘Please!’ Marilyn said urgently. DS Rose was so close that Marilyn was able to reach out for her wrist, reinforcing her pleading. ‘You need to leave, you need to leave now, right now!’