Nevis takes a deep breath. Her mind turns and quickens then fizzes like a firework. The space behind her eyes is heating up and she wonders, suddenly, if she is going to cry.

From somewhere far away she hears the policewoman repeating the question. A hand lands on her arm.

‘You need a moment to think about it?’ asks the policewoman.

‘No.’

‘So, nothing strange.’ The policewoman is staring at Nevis now, trying to work her out.

‘We’ve checked out her social accounts, obviously, but there doesn’t seem to be anything there to…’

A familiar face appears. The nurse who led Nevis from the ambulance.

‘A quick word? Nothing bad, just to let you know that the doctors have managed to stabilise Satnam. She’s still very poorly and the next twenty-four hours will be crucial but for now she’s stable.’

‘Can I see her?’

The nurse, whose name is Becky, Nevis remembers now, grimaces. Nevis is not sure what this is supposed to mean. ‘Not right now, sweetheart. She’s in good hands. Her parents are on their way.’

‘They don’t like me.’

‘Why wouldn’t they like you?’

‘The usual reasons.’

Becky flashes the policewoman an odd look.

The policewoman goes on talking once Becky has left but Nevis has switched off. She checks the time on her phone. She’s thinking about Honor now, hoping she gets here soon. Normally she would have timed the drive from the exact minute Honor set off. She wishes now she had because not knowing is anxious-making. An oversight. Her legs begin to jig up and down. She is longing for Honor to arrive but also afraid of what she might feel when she does. The hurt from the summer has not gone away.

The policewoman’s hand lands on her arm once more and a voice says she needs Nevis to focus on the question. The police need to find Satnam’s phone. ‘Sondra told us she gave it to you in the ambulance. Is that right?’

‘Yes.’

‘So, do you have it on you?’

‘No,’ Nevis says. This is not a lie. It is merely not the whole truth. The phone is still in Nevis’s backpack.

‘Maybe you left it in the ambulance?’

‘It’s possible.’

Shortly afterwards the policewoman stops talking and leaves Nevis in the company of Sondra once more. Hours pass or seem to. She watches traffic accidents being stretchered in, ashen-faced elderly folk, worried-looking parents with their subdued or else screaming kids, all rotating in and out, in and out in the early morning churn. She takes out her phone and checks Satnam’s social.