‘Are you not staying for the scores?’ Joel called after her as she pushed the door to reveal his wife standing on the other side, her face in a grin that quickly dropped away. She raised her eyes to look beyond their furious daughter as she stomped past. Joel just had time to shrug before the door fell back shut. He was laughing hard too as he waited for the scores. They were given out by a spotty youth who did an obvious double-take at the thirty-nine-year-old, strongly built man with closely shaved hair struggling to free himself from where the strap of the largest backpack caught on his bicep. When Joel did get himself free, he moved to tower over the kids, his hand out for his Laser Quest score sheet. He didn’t care what the lad thought; raising two daughters would strip you of that concern very quickly.

The soft-play centre he exited into was a cacophony of white noise cut up by the shrill screams of a million kids. It was half-term week and packed. Joel made for a table in the café area. His wife had already sat back down. Six-year-old Abigail Norris was sitting down too, which was just as well, since standing up would have her in danger of tripping over her bottom lip. She was making an effort not to look at him.

‘Where’s Daisy?’ Joel asked after the missing eight-year-old that made his family complete.

‘She found a couple of schoolmates and I haven’t seen her since.’ Michelle Norris suddenly looked very serious. ‘I hear you let the whole team down in there, Daddy?’ She was containing a smile but her brown eyes had a sparkle that gave her away.

‘So it would seem. We won, though!’ He wafted a sheet towards Abigail, who still wouldn’t look at him.

‘Did you get our sweet little six-year-old girl shot?’

‘Only a little bit!’

Abigail suddenly got up out of her seat and walked round to sit sideways in her mother’s lap. The bottom lip was even more prominent when it reappeared and she made sure she was facing away from her big, slow dad. Joel couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

His joy dropped away quickly.

Beyond his wife’s wide grin and against the backdrop of constant movement and excitement, a police officer stood still. She wore a crisp-looking uniform: a white shirt tucked into pleated trousers over shiny shoes. A hat too, with a rim that shimmered as it reflected the pulsing Laser Quest sign behind where he now sat.

‘What’s the matter?’ Michelle’s voice cut through the noise.