‘You don’t know that,’ I sniff. ‘You’ll never know that. The whole of Warchester’s the army. The place is basically built on squaddies. Army traffic even has its own lane in the road. There’s no one round here without an army connection.’

‘We visit with Kayleigh every week,’ Julie says, squeezing my leg again. ‘Your mum is having counselling. She has to report to the 162clinic herself twice a week and is very well supported. Kayleigh is thriving. Here, look…’

My eyes swim as she lays pictures out on the table. Kayleigh with her cuddlies. Kayleigh with her Aquarius charm. Kayleigh with her peachy cheeks, fuzzy white curls, butterfly eyelashes. I start to sob, burying my head in my hands. Every night on my slab of a bed, in my cell of a room in that pathetic excuse for a safe haven, shelter, refuge – none of the words they use fit what it really is: just another type of prison – all I ever wish for is that I could go back to lying next to her, even though I know what it would mean if I was still there.

Julie’s arms slide round me, chair squeaking again as she rocks me. For some reason her chair is the only one that doesn’t sound like it’s on wheels.

‘We’re nearly there, Carly,’ the policewoman says, papers rustling somewhere. ‘So nearly there. We can’t do it without you, remember that. You’re helping us, and we’re going to help you. And when this is all over, we’ll protect you for the rest of your life. You can count on that. You can count on us…’

‘Like I can count on anything,’ I say into Julie’s shoulder. ‘I don’t know who half of them were. Even Rach didn’t.’

‘You won’t be seeing Rachel again for a very, very long time,’ Julie murmurs into my ear. ‘The case against her was straightforward. She was complicit, unlike you.’

‘She was my friend,’ I mutter, swallowing bile back down my throat as I pull away from her. ‘She had to do it all too, but just because she’s older than me she’s going down for it? There’s no protection on the table for her, just because of some random line in the sand deciding when we’re all officially grown up? She was the best friend I ever had.’

‘That’s just it,’ the policewoman says, shuffling the papers on the desk between us. ‘No friend in the world grooms another friend for abuse. Without Rachel, this might never have happened to you. And there were others, Carly, you know that. Rachel was 163an accomplice in this entire sordid affair. It’s that simple. She’s a criminal. And with your testimony, she’s going to pay for what she’s done.’