Porter dismissed him for now. He could wait; he wasn’t going anywhere. An ambulance was blocking his view of the front door. Its rear door was open, and he could see there was nobody inside it yet. He sprinted around it and into the building, stopping so abruptly that Styles nearly ran into the back of him. Paramedics were making their way carefully down the stairs, carrying a stretcher.

‘Evie!’

The lead paramedic looked up at him. ‘Look out, gents, coming through.’

Porter and Styles retreated through the door and the paramedics bustled past them. Porter looked down and felt his stomach lurch when he saw her face. Her eyes were closed, the right side of her face was an angry palette of purples and blues, ballooning up to an alarming size. They had dressed what looked like a deep gash on her face. It ran from halfway down her forehead to her eyebrow, and continued another two inches from beneath her right eye down her cheekbone. There was no movement; she lay deathly still on the stretcher as they prepared to lift her into the ambulance.

Jesus, is she dead?

His stomach did another flip until he noticed the misting of condensation on the inside of the oxygen mask that waxed and waned with each breath. He turned to Styles.

‘She’s alive.’ He looked up at the paramedic who was stepping out to close the doors and head to the driver’s seat. ‘How bad is she?’

‘Could be worse,’ he said, hustling past them. ‘Vitals are strong, but she’s been out since we got here. Hard to say much for sure till we get her back to base.’

‘Where you headed?’

‘Darent Valley A & E, if you want to follow?’

Porter nodded. He knew the way, but he also knew they’d not let anyone near her while they assessed her injuries. He wanted to have a look inside first, and he’d head straight there afterwards. He motioned for Styles to follow him. They heard footsteps up on the floor above them and headed straight up to examine the scene.

Porter was moving at pace as he reached the first-floor landing, and almost walked head first into a man coming the other way. He pulled up short of a collision and saw Anderson with a startled look on his face.

‘Jesus, Porter, watch where you’re going.’