‘I don’t know,’ he says. ‘Don’t know exactly, anyway. But they used him to get to the kids. Parish was the channel. It was likely via other family members, or some such. It almost always works out that way. And it probably helped that it’s always harder to say no to anyone living with catastrophic injuries – handy, that. It wasn’t enough to exploit vulnerable children, they had to go for people with disabilities too…’ He trails off into a sigh before continuing. ‘But none of those details will help us on this though, infuriating as it is. Because I need to be sure the police aren’t setting me up on Minchin. And for that, I need a leak from somewhere else.’

‘Tell me what you know about the captain,’ I say again, even though I can’t hear myself. Carly’s screaming, screaming like she’s on fire. ‘I need to know everything.’ I get to my feet.

‘Don’t bother,’ he says as I bang on the doors. ‘They can’t hear 214us. We’re all obviously locked in. We’ll have to wait for a power surge or something.’

‘Tell me!’ I scream, standing on his legs as I stumble forward to the other doors. Or is it Carly? She’s roaring now, hurling herself against the walls in my head, again and again. ‘I just need someone to tell me the fucking truth. I thought that captain was just another one of the deviant tribe. And he’s gone down for the rest of time now, hasn’t he? There was enough evidence to convict him to the moon and back.’

I bang on the glass, using my head now, screwing my eyes shut. He’ll never get out, they said. Neither will any of the others, they said, if you can identify them.

‘Parish was definitely just another one of the deviants, but that’s not the point, is it? Stop it, Marie, come on. Now is not the time to pass out again, OK?’

I shrug his hand off my shoulder as my head thumps. He must have stood up.

‘Are you telling me he trafficked members of his own family?’

‘That’s the allegation, yes. That’s how he got to Baby Girl A, and got Minchin his fix. Except that’s not my story, is it? One thing Andromeda got right first was the grooming. The original inquiry at least figured out the main source of it. And now I’m being told the captain had some former association that he exploited via various family connections both inside and outside the barracks. Sure, I could keep going over the lurid details for Olivia, but that’s not the point is it? The point is proving the state covered for Minchin specifically because there was too much to lose if it didn’t.’