The messages laid bare his daughter’s desperation. She was asking to be left alone – begging. Begging for nothing to be done with the photos and videos she had sent. Begging that her parents would not be told. The conversation with ‘Sophie Cummings’ was shown too. Callie’s desperation was even clearer here. She was more candid; it was clear she trusted this person. And why shouldn’t she? She believed they had a connection – two women going through the same trauma. Danny turned the page. There was only one message on here. It showed the last exchange between Callie and Sophie Cummings. The final reply stood out behind yellow highlighter:

Kill yourself, Callie.

It was dated 3 January. A day that would always be etched in his memory. The day his fifteen-year-old daughter had silently taken a taxi to a park she loved, where Danny had pushed her on the swings as a baby. And their lives were changed for ever.

Danny paused to fix again on the man responsible. After all this time, here he was. Helpless. Vulnerable. Danny must have blocked everything out completely because he was suddenly aware that the man was shaking his head and moaning. Danny was sure he would be calling for mercy, begging to be left alone.

Just like Callie had.

Danny turned to the last page of the folder. It was a note addressed to him directly. He skimmed it but nothing was going in, not anymore. He threw the whole folder aside. The slap as it hit the ground this time barely registered, like the room had suddenly filled with water to deaden the sound. The man had become still too and now stared straight at Danny.

‘You know who I am, don’t you?’ Danny said. ‘Callie … She’s my daughter. I should be angry.’ Danny had to stop, to swallow hard a couple of times and lubricate his throat to continue. ‘For a moment I thought it was going to come, but I just can’t feel anything. I haven’t for a while. It’s like Callie took that ability with her, the moment she slumped over on that bench it was gone. If she doesn’t wake up I don’t think I will either. But the one thing I can feel is scared. I’m terrified every single day. And then I feel guilty, it’s crushing, like I only want her to wake up for me, for my sake. And you know what, that’s true, because I want us, I want the family that I had … my family.’ He swallowed again. ‘It was everything. But now it’s like one of the limbs has gone numb and we’re just waiting for it to come back so we can move again. But she might not come back. Not like she was, not ever. So we might have to find a way to move on without her and I’m so terrified that we won’t. That I won’t. But maybe that’s what this is.’ Danny took a step forward and, through the numbness, he felt the butt of the weapon bump him in the chest. He moved his right hand in to take up the slack in the trigger, revelling again in the feeling of the metal pushing back. ‘Maybe this is how we move on.’