“Yeah. Well, I mean, they went too far, didn’t they? I’d been wanting out for a while, and I thought this is my chance, with Mimsy getting killed and everything falling apart, and I’d better take it. I thought if you knew who they were you could arrest them and put them in jail. And make sure you get their mobiles. And their computers. Smash them all. Then we’ll be safe.”

She showed a remarkable amount of faith in what the police could do, Gerry thought, given her obvious intelligence, and the fact that the police hadn’t done much for her so far. “We’ll do our best,” she said. “What about ketamine? Mimsy had been given ketamine.”

“K? Sunny and Faisal didn’t like that. It was strictly weed and coke for the most part. They wouldn’t have given her it.”

“So who do you think gave it to Mimsy?”

“I don’t know. One of the cousins, maybe. They always had different drugs, like E and downers.”

“The same cousins who slept with you?”

“No. Like they all had family in Dewsbury or Bradford or Huddersfield. They called them cousins. I don’t know if they were real cousins or not. That’s just what we’d call them. It was that network I told you about. They’d visit and we’d chill. Sometimes they’d bring friends.”

“Just you and Mimsy or the other girls, too?”

“The other girls, too. All of us. And the cousins brought girls sometimes. Girls like us from Dewsbury or wherever. They passed us around, drove us all over the place. Then . . . then Mimsy got killed.” Gerry could tell Jade was crying now, rubbing her eyes and nose with the back of her hand. She sniffled.

“Who killed Mimsy, Jade?”

“I don’t know. I’ve told you I don’t know. I wasn’t there. All I know is that she told me three of Sunny’s cousins were coming down from a job in Newcastle on their way back to Dewsbury that evening and they were all going to stop off for something to eat and have a few drinks and chill. They’d made some sort of deal, and Sunny was getting a cut out of it, something to do with bringing booze and fags and migrants over from Calais. I saw him earlier in the day, and he was all excited about it. He wanted Mimsy and me to come over that night and help entertain them. I couldn’t go. It was my period, and I got pains something cruel, so I stopped at home in my room. Mimsy went, though. Sunny must have said they could take her to Dewsbury with them in the van to see her mates. Mimsy would have gone for that. She’d made friends with some of the girls who came up with them sometimes, see. They were a laugh. However it happened, Mimsy wouldn’t have gone against Sunny. She wouldn’t have dared, temper or not. We’d all learned to do what he said by then. His mood could change, like, quicker than anyone’s.”