‘I am sorry, Carly,’ the policewoman says, uniform creaking as she leans towards me. ‘Julie’s right, of course, there’s protocol at work here, and if you keep raising your hand to my officers, these need to stay on.’

I thump my fist on the desk, shrugging Julie’s hand off my shoulder. Like I’ll ever pretend she’s the queen just because they all do. I know her real name. I can read it on her chest.

‘Could you bring me that Savlon, Phil?’ the policewoman calls over my head. I can’t help but relax my hand as she rubs cream into the scratches round my wrist.

‘Does that feel any better?’

I shake my head, still staring at the floor. Now it’s Julie’s hand, finding its way on to my leg this time, warming up a patch on my revolting tracksuit. I don’t even have my own clothes anymore, just police handouts. It was never supposed to take this long, once I’d told them everything. It’s like they think they can make me remember 161 other names and faces just by making me stew, as if I’m not doing my best to forget them all. I stiffen into a sudden clatter on the table, then a click as the policewoman finally releases my handcuffs.

‘Don’t make me regret that, OK?’

I pull my aching wrist into my lap without looking up. Re-grrairrrrt. Scottish or Irish? A fly buzzes to death on the strip light overhead.

‘I just don’t understand why Kayleigh’s still with Ma,’ I say into my lap, tears spotting the grey fabric on my legs. ‘What else do you need me to tell you to get her out of there? It’s OK for you to keep asking me the same questions, but you never answer mine, do you? She was this close to being drugged up inside the barracks, and there’s nothing standing between her and them, now I’m not there. Nothing.’

‘Kayleigh’s well protected, I can assure you,’ the policewoman says. ‘And that’s in large part because of you, Carly. You’re still a child yourself. You should never have had to look after her in the first place. You’ve been so incredibly brave coming forward with all this … so, so brave…’

‘But Ma can’t look after herself!’ I shout, looking up at her, a pair of glasses perched on her nose like someone’s drawn them on to her face. ‘She never could. That’s how this all started. We had no other choice. But you still think it’s OK to leave Kayleigh living with her.’

‘Everyone you identified is behind bars, love,’ she says. ‘Everyone. The trials may not be over but they can’t get to you, and they can’t get to her.’