‘You have to take her in,’ I hiss, yanking at the hand cuffed to the table in front of me. ‘Just pick her up and move her somewhere else. Why can’t she go into a foster home? An orphanage? Or why can’t I look after her. She could so easily just stay with me. There are babies all over the hostel, in practically every room … How much more do you need to see for yourselves to get her out of there? Ma is completely incapable, other than give birth to her, she’s never been able to do a single thing for her. You promised you’d protect her. That’s the only reason I ever agreed to keep going over and over this…’

‘It’s going to get a lot worse if you keep doing that,’ the policewoman drawls, nodding at my arm from across the table. I try not to wince as the cuff bites deeper into my skin, blood spotting the streaky tiles below. These are tiles that have seen it all before. Every last painful plea.

‘Just take it off then … I can hardly strangle the lot of you, can I?’

Metal rattles against the table as I shout, glaring at the rest of the officers in the room. This policewoman always comes with her own army. She’s never bothered telling me her name, but they all call her ma’am, like she’s the queen, except it’s written all over her uniform that she’s not. And every time she leaves the room they talk about her like she’s anything but royal. All she wants is to be in charge.160

‘Try and calm down, love,’ Julie murmurs next to me. ‘You’ve done so well. So, so well. I can’t help you if you keep physically lashing out at them. There’s a protocol…’

‘There’s always a protocol,’ I hiss at her, blinking back tears. ‘This whole filthy town is built on protocol. That’s why Kayleigh’s still with Ma, and why she’s still at risk, because apparently staying with her biological mother is more important than her biological mother being capable of anything other than getting roaring drunk.’

I kick at the table leg, shivering as my plastic chair squeaks, as if it’s on wheels. I’ve been in and out of this sweaty room for months now, answering questions, ticking boxes, reliving every little detail, all so Captain Perv’s wheelchair never, ever rolls again. And still Kayleigh’s exposed. I can’t understand it. I don’t know what else I need to tell them.

‘Couldn’t we remove these?’ Julie rests her hand on my shoulder. ‘Carly isn’t the criminal here. I think we established that months ago.’