Chapter 47

Friday afternoon we were working in the office. I was proof reading the first sections of Poppy’s book, her writing was good, but her typing was woeful. Lia was working on the small desk by the door, she was making a database of all the buildings and staff the charity would have access to.

Lia had spent the week learning how to use the database Jeremy recommended, it was free, and he apologised that it wasn’t pretty or easy to use, but Lia persisted with the video tutorials and this morning she’d put together the tables and fields for her first database. We celebrated with cream cakes in the café.

I’d just emailed Poppy’s work to Lisa when my phone rang, I checked the screen, it was Helen.

“Hey brother, I’ve just had a very interesting chat with Maisie’s mum.”

“Really, how did that come about?”

“Well, thanks to Lia I’m now a volunteer counsellor at the school, I’ve spoken to Maisie, along with a few other girls, they’re a pretty unhappy bunch, it’s so sad, life is so much more intense for these kids than it was for us.”

“So, you called Janet in for a meeting about Maisie?”

“I did, I might have failed to mention I’m your sister, and that I’d spoken to Maisie after a request from Belle.”

“How did it go?”

“I’ll tell you everything if you buy me a hot chocolate.”

“Ok, I’ll see you there in a few minutes.”

I put the phone down and turned to Lia, “fancy another trip to the café?”

“Did Helen mention hot chocolate?”

“She did.”

“Then count me in, just let me save this work first.”

Helen was waiting in the café, she had a toastie and a hot chocolate, as soon as we arrived, she waved at Kailee who started to make our drinks.

“Well, I’ve had an interesting morning, and I’m inclined to file a report to social services, but I’ll speak to Jenny first.”

“Aren’t you legally obliged to file a report if you think there’s a cause for concern.”

“If I was employed by the school I would be, my status is a little unusual, so I’m not legally obliged. Like I say, I’m leaning towards it, I need to speak to Jenny, then I’ll speak to the school head.”

Helen was quiet as our drinks arrived, an Americano for me, hot chocolate with extra cream and a piece of millionaires’ shortbread for Lia. I gave Kailee my card to settle the bill.

Once it was safe to speak, Helen continued.

“Janet isn’t completely sure, but she’s afraid Maisie has been drugged and raped on more than one occasion. Janet is also sure she’s been raped herself.”

“Oh fuck...” Lia whispered, “is it just confined to the family?”

“She doesn’t think so, but she has no proof one way or the other. He’s a very forceful character, what he says goes, he brooks no argument, so Janet just does what he says and keeps her head down.”

“Maisie said her mum works, did she say where?” I asked.

“She works in the finance office at the big Tesco over in Merton, she had to come see me at lunchtime as she’s working today.”

“Would they manage, if say, Mr Chambers was arrested,” I ask.

“Well, they’d lose their home for a start,” Lia replied.

“This is so frustrating,” I sighed, “we’ll likely make their lives worse by helping them.”

Helen finished her toastie and wiped her hands, “I have an idea about that, but I need to speak to Belle first.”

“Would that idea involve Maisie moving to York,” Lia smiled.

“It might, but Belle would need to speak to Amber, as she’s the tenant, she may not want lodgers.”

“It’s a neat solution though, and Belle does want to help Maisie,” I agreed.

“Is there anything else? Did Janet disclose any other poor behaviour,” Lia asked.

“She thinks he sometimes beat Maisie while she was at work. Maisie never said anything, but she’d act like she was in pain sometimes.”

“Oh no,” Lia moaned, “that’s just awful. Belle saw her topless in the piercing salon, she didn’t mention bruises.”

“I think it was a while ago,” Helen replied, “Maisie is a big girl now, she’d deck him if he tried it now.”

“She’s a big girl in more ways than one,” Lia told her, “Belle wants to help her have a breast reduction.”

“I noticed she wears a baggy jumper to school, I wondered what she was hiding.”

“Belle says she’s a J cup.”

“Oh my,” Helen gasped, “the poor girl. She could get a reduction on the NHS, but only if it’s affecting health. Otherwise, they’d have to pay, and it’s usually more expensive than implants.”

“Belle said she’ll pay.”

“Did she, Belle’s a beautiful child, she just wants everyone to be happy.”

Helen pulled her phone from her handbag, “Is that a photo of JoJo on your phone case?” Lia laughed.

“Ahh yes. She’s been looking at merchandise ideas, for when she’s famous, or at least internet famous. She had a couple of phone cases printed as free samples.”

“She’s got ambitions then?” I asked.

“Yeah, she’s been looking at starting an OnlyFans, once she’s got a lot of photos together.”

“Please, do not mention OnlyFans to the girls,” I begged her.

“They’re too young to start one,” Helen replied.

“You’ve met Belle, right. You think that would stop her?”

“Yeah, I guess they already know it exists anyway, but knowing someone with a page would arouse her curiosity. I’ll ask JoJo to keep it a secret.”

“They’re friends with JoJo on all the socials,” Lia replied, “as soon as she promotes it, they’ll see it.”

“Mmm, that’s true,” I sighed, “well let’s see what happens, if they mention it, we’ll have a talk.”

Helen waved Kailee over and ordered another hot chocolate, Lia asked for another as well.

When Kailee was gone, Helen continued, “you know, I’m not sure which way Poppy would go with OnlyFans, either she’d be dead against it because of what she’s been through...”

“Ahh, she has no problem with porn in general,” I replied, “she watches it with Belle, and Belle then tells me far too much about the films and girls they’ve watched. We thought about stopping them by blocking the Wi-Fi at night, but Katie told us Poppy is using it to share the truth and dangers of the industry. They enjoy watching, sure, but Belle is totally aware it’s a very fake industry, and a lot of the stuff you see online is not the kind of activities normal people enjoy.”

“Ahh, in that case she’ll love OnlyFans as it puts full control in the hands of the creators.”

“She still can’t start a page until they’re all over 18,” I said flatly.

“Of course, I’m happy to have that talk, if it’s needed.”

“I think I’ll be Ok,” I replied.

“I’ll help,” Lia added, “I feel almost like a parent at times, especially with Belle.”

“She’s got so many mums,” Helen laughed as she took the new drinks off Kailee.

“I sometimes look at Belle,” Kailee joined in, “and I see the happiest girl in the world, she loves you all so much. It’s funny though, I know Poppy is her girlfriend, but she does look up to her like a girl looks up to big sister or mother.”

“It’s because of the bond they developed when they lived on the streets,” Lia told her, “I didn’t manage to build such a close bond with anyone. Although they were my friends, I had trust issues to overcome I think.”

“I see that with how fiercely protective Poppy is, when they come in she scans the whole café for threats before she relaxes.”

“I’ve never noticed that,” Helen replied.

“She won’t be as wary when we’re with them,” I said, “we still don’t know where she was held, it must be somewhere around here, because I can’t imagine she walked far, the state she was in that night.”

“Is this the time I’ve been hearing about, when Poppy was kidnapped?” Kailee asked.

“Has Poppy talked about her time to you?” Helen asked.

“Oh no, she wouldn’t be telling me about it, oh no, definitely not. Some of the girls from the school, and the kids from the mixed-sex school, they talk about Poppy sometimes when she’s not here.”

“What do they say?” I asked.

“Mostly how amazing she is, to have survived what she survived. Some of the girls are a little afraid of her and Belle, apparently Belle nearly killed someone.”

“Well, I wouldn’t go that far, she knocked a girl that slapped her to the floor is all,” Lia replied.

“Ahh, I didn’t think they’d let her back in the school if it was something so serious. Anyway, I mention Poppy’s kidnap because you said it was somewhere close by.”

“Do you have any ideas Kailee?” I asked.

“Well, yes, you all live in the nice houses, I don’t suppose you visit Merton much, it’s not so fancy down there, there’s a row of derelict houses down by the B&Q, some bad stuff happened there a few weeks back but nobody will talk about what it was.”

“Do you know the address?” I asked.

“Poulson Street, the terraced houses in the middle, they’re all boarded up, but one had people living there, they’re all gone now.”

“Thanks Kailee, you’ve been an amazing help,” I gave her a £20 for the second lot of drinks, “keep the change, I’ll get someone to look at the houses,” I added as I pulled out my phone and called Jenny.

“Hi Alex, what are you up to?”

“I’m in the café with Helen and Lia, are you busy?”

“I’ve got a meeting with the super in an hour, do you need something?”

“Could you pop over here for a quick coffee, Kailee, the waitress, has just told us something very interesting. How well do you know Merton?”

“Not terribly well, I’ve been to the B&Q a few times when I was decorating the flat.”

“Perfect, you know it better than us, any chance you could speak to Kailee?”

“Does this concern an ongoing investigation?”

“Not really, Poppy never made an official complaint.”

“I’ll be there in 10 minutes.”

I put my phone down, “she’s on the way,” I told Helen and Lia.

“Ahh, I’ll make the call I was going to make earlier while we wait,” Helen replied as she opened her contacts, “Hi,” she said as they answered, “Helen Harrison here, is Dr Black in? He is, could I speak to him for a moment.”

She held the phone away from her head, grimacing at the awful hold music, “you’d think for the money these people charge they could get a better phone system with some decent music,” she whispered, “ahh, Dr Black, Helen Harrison here ... oh no, everything’s fine with me, I’m just making a general enquiry on behalf of one of my nieces ... I’m wondering if you can answer a general question about breast reduction ... my niece has a friend, she’s the same age, 14, and she has very large breasts, she’s, what did you say Lia...”

“She’s a 30J, Belle says...”

“Did you hear that? Yes, she’s a 30J ... height did you say, mmm, 5 foot 3 inches, about 160 centimetres ... yes, she’s 14 ... there isn’t an urgent medical need to perform a reduction, but they are causing her problems...”

She listened for a while, then thanked the doctor.

“OK, he’s reluctant to perform the surgery on someone so young unless there’s a dire medical need, and in that case, he says, he’ll do it on the NHS anyway. The problem with surgery like this is there are enormous complications if it’s carried out before Maisie has stopped growing, not just her boobs, she needs to have seen no change in height, breast and shoe size for a year, and her weight needs to be stable as well.”

“So that’s a no then,” Lia sighed.

“It really looks like it. We’ll keep this quiet, and I’ll speak to Maisie and Belle together next week.”

We were the only customers in the café when Jenny arrived, so we asked Kailee to sit with us after she’d brought Jenny’s coffee.

“So, what’s this about?” Jenny asked as she blew on her hot coffee.

“We got onto the subject of Poppy’s attack and Kailee has heard talk about an incident at a row of derelict houses near B&Q in Merton.” I told her.

“Poulson Street,” Kailee added, “the middle house, they’re all boarded up, but it’s the middle one that people talk about.”

“What do people say happened?” Jenny asked her calmly.

“You won’t tell anyone I said this?”

“Absolutely not, I just want to know what happened at that house and how it relates to Poppy.”

“They say a couple of girls were taken in there, and about 10 men and they did horrible things for days. I don’t live near there, but I’ve heard people say there was a lot of screaming.”

“Did people see anyone leave?”

“There were comings and goings, I don’t know what else happened, just the screams and the men is enough to knock me sick just thinking about it.”

“Thank you Kailee, I’ll report this back and we’ll investigate.”

“You won’t mention me, because these people are bad...”

“Oh, believe me honey, I know just how bad these people are, but I know some people who are much more terrifying. I’ll keep your name out of it anyway, I’ll just tell my bosses I’ve heard a rumour, they know me, they trust what I tell them.”

“Thank you for listening to me,” Kailee said quickly, as she left the table to go and serve a new customer.

“So, what are you going to do now?” I asked.

“I’m going to borrow an unmarked car and drive past the house, to get a feel, then I’m going to speak to my boss, we’ll need to do a full forensic sweep.”

“They don’t know the full story, about Poppy’s kidnap, how will you bring it up?”

“Kailee said two girls,” Lia broke in, “where’s the second girl, Poppy never mentioned her, she might still be in the house, so you say you’ve heard talk of another dead girl.”

“Yeah, I was thinking that,” Jenny replied, “Poppy’s DNA will be all over the house, but I don’t think she’s ever been arrested, so we don’t have a record of her prints or DNA, we may not need to bring her into the investigation. I’ll double check when I get back to the station.”

We were just finishing our drinks a few minutes after Jenny had left when Poppy and her sisters entered.

“Hey dad!” Belle called from the door, “I think we just saw Mum running up the road.”

“Probably, she’s just been in, come and sit down, we’ve a lot to tell you all.”

They brought their drinks over and Lia pulled a second table next to ours, so we all fit.

“You look serious Dad, what’s up?” Katie asked as she pulled her seat close to Lia.

“Have you remembered anything about those few days, Poppy? Anything you’ve not told us yet?” I asked.

“Like what? I think I’ve told you everything I can remember?”

“Was there another girl there?” Helen asked quietly.

Poppy put her drink down and closed her eyes, Belle and Helen each held a hand as she thought back to a few days she desperately wanted to forget.

“Misha,” Poppy whispered, “Misha was there.”

“Who’s Misha?” Belle asked, “I don’t think I remember her.”

“You won’t know her,” Poppy replied, eyes still closed as she dredged up the memories, “she’s a street walker, works the area around Kings Cross. She’s hooked on crystal meth and she was in a very bad way when they snatched us both.”

“How old is she?” Helen asked.

“I don’t know, she looks so rough, maybe 15, maybe 20, I’ve no idea, sorry. We didn’t speak because she didn’t really understand much English, I think she’s from Estonia, all the girls I’ve seen from there are so pretty.”

“Do you know what happened to her?”

“I’m so sorry, Helen, I’ve no idea, I ran away as soon as I got chance.”

“That’s OK, nobody would expect you to do anything else when you’re fighting for your life. Let’s move away from Misha for now. Do you have any idea yet where you were held?”

“I’m really sorry, we were thrown in a van, it was night, we were so scared.”

“Has anyone got an iPad with them?” I asked.

“I’ve got mine,” Belle answered brightly.

“Can I borrow it, please.”

“Of course,” she replied, and gave me her pink cased iPad, now emblazoned with Disney stickers and unicorns.

I opened it and found Poulson Street on Google maps, I changed it to Street View and turned it to face Poppy.

“Does this look familiar?”

“No, I’m sorry, but it was dark, and I ran out the back door.”

I took it back and scrolled around until I got to the alley behind the houses.

“Oh fuck,” Poppy cried, “let me scroll around a bit,” she asked as she took the iPad from me.

“Yes, I remember this now, where is it?”

“It’s in Merton, near the B&Q,” Lia replied, “see that big building in the background? That’s part of the business park, do you remember walking past it?”

“I think I do,” Poppy answered slowly, “so how far did I walk?”

I checked Google Maps on my phone, “the shortest route is almost two miles,” I said, “but it’s unlikely you took that route by chance.”

“It doesn’t really make much difference the route you took,” Belle said quietly as she took Belle’s hand back, “it matters that you were somehow strong enough to walk at least two miles after such appalling treatment. You’re amazing, Poppy. You survived and you came to find me once you were safe.”

“I needed you Belle, you mended my heart.”

“Jenny’s going to borrow a car to check out the street,” Lia said, “should we tell her it’s definitely the right place?”

“Good idea,” I replied, “I’ll call her now.”

I got Jenny’s voicemail, so I left her a quick message, she called me straight back, “sorry, I was on a call with my boss.”

“Well, the good news, if you can call it that, is that it’s almost definitely the right place.”

“Oh, you’ve spoken to Poppy?”

“She’s here, they all arrived a couple of minutes after you left.”

“Would she like to have a drive round there, or would it be too much for her?”

“Jenny wants to know if you want to drive round there with her,” I asked Poppy.

“Only if Belle can come...” she answered.

“She’ll come if Belle can come.” I told Jenny.

“That’s fine, I’ll pick them up from the road in about 10 minutes.”

“There’s one more thing,” I said before she could cut the call.

“What’s that?”

“The other girl was called Misha, Poppy thinks she’s Estonian, we have no more information.”

“OK, I’ll make sure the CSI guys are aware there may be another body.”

“We’re not going in are we?” Poppy asked while Jenny was still on the line.

“Absolutely not,” she replied as I put the phone on speaker, “we’re just going to drive past, then maybe drive back the route you walked, if you can remember it.”

“OK, but there’s no way I’m going back in there.”

“I would never ask you to, I’ll do whatever I can to keep your name out of it. Ahh, on that note, you were never arrested, were you?”

“No, I’ve never been arrested, or fingerprinted, why?”

“We’ll do a full sweep of the house when the CSI move in, there’ll be a lot of your DNA in there.”

“Ahh yes, I was in for a few days,” she whispered, “there’ll be wee and poo, and probably blood, I was a real mess, I’m so sorry about what you’ll see in there.”

“And none of what I see will be your fault Poppy, remember that always, none of what happened to you was your fault.”

“I guess, but this is twice I’ve left someone to die...”

Helen turned Poppy’s face to hers, “listen to me Poppy, would there have been any realistic chance of you helping on either occasion? Would you have survived if you’d intervened?”

“No, but...”

“But nothing Poppy, you’d be dead, so would the other girls, and you wouldn’t be here now starting a charity to help girls who’ve been forgotten by everyone else.”

“I guess, but I still feel bad.”

“And that’s understandable, just don’t think you did the wrong thing, because staying and fighting would have been a huge mistake.”

“OK, I’ve got the keys,” Jenny said, “I’ll be there in a few minutes, blue BMW.”

The call was cut, Poppy stood and kissed Helen, “thank you, Helen, you always know the right things to say.”

“But for the grace of god, I’d have been in your place Poppy, and I really don’t think I’d have survived,” Helen told her sadly.

“You never know how you’ll manage until you’ve lived through it,” Poppy replied, “you have a lot of inner strength.”

“I’m just glad I never had to find out,” Helen replied as she hugged Poppy, “ohh, Belle, I need a chat later, can you call me when you’re back home?”

“Of course I can.”

“Well, this didn’t really go as planned today,” I said to Lia and Katie as I stared to prepare the evening meal.

“What was the plan,” Katie asked.

“I planned to work for a couple of hours, then we’d go down to the garden centre for a look around, then in the evening we’d chill and watch a couple of movies.”

“We can do all that tomorrow,” Katie suggested, “and we could still watch a film, it’ll take Poppy’s mind of what’s just happened.”

“We could watch Frozen!” Lia cried, “both Poppy and Belle love that film.”

“Or we could say we’re watching it and just let them both sing the whole movie,” I replied.

“It’s a plan then,” Katie decided, “what are you cooking, it’s got to be something Poppy likes.”

“I’m going to try to make a lasagne that’s half as good as Belle’s.”

“Go sit down with a beer or something, Belle showed me how to make the sauce, me and Lia will do it.”

Lia looked surprised at this, “I can’t cook!”

“You’ll never learn if you don’t try, chop those onions while I make the sauce.”

I grabbed a beer from the fridge, poured Katie and Lia a glass of wine and sat down to watch them cook.

“What did Helen want to talk to Belle about,” Katie asked as she sweated the onions before she added the meat, stock and herbs.

“Helen spoke to Maisie’s mum today, she also spoke to her cosmetic surgeon, and finally we talked the matter over with Jenny.”

“OK, I assume none of this is good news.”

“Not really, it’s a very poor situation. Janet is pretty sure he’s raped Maisie in the past. Maisie has no clue because he’s fond of drugging his family.”

“So, mum needs to arrest him,” Katie replied angrily.

“Sadly, there’s no evidence, so there’s not a lot we can do, especially if Maisie has no memory of the events.”

“And to add further woes,” Lia joined in, “if he’s arrested, they lose their home, because it’s tied to the church. Considering the church covered up his earlier abuse, we can assume they’ll do little or nothing to help them if he’s arrested.”

“Ahh, bollocks, why is this world so awful at times,” Katie cried.

“Helen has a plan, she just needs to speak to Belle,” Lia reassured her.

“OK, so what about Belle’s questions about Maisie’s boob job, you said Helen spoke to her surgeon.”

“Yes, that’s also not good news. Helen’s surgeon could do it, he says he’s done a lot of breast reductions, but...”

“But not for someone so young,” Katie replied.

“Yes, they’re not advisable for someone who is still growing. Helen said she can’t have grown in height, shoe size or cup size for 12 months, otherwise there could be serious complications.”

“But when she stops growing, breast reductions are a thing?” Katie asked.

“Yes,” Lia replied, “I’ve been reading about them this afternoon, as big as Maisie is, she’s not unusual. I saw a story about a girl who was a J cup at 12, and M cup by the time she was 18.”

“Oh my god, the poor girl, how did she cope?”

“I don’t know, it must be awful, can you even imagine how heavy they must be.”

Katie was shaking her head, “how can she even breath if she sleeps on her back. What we need to do is take Maisie shopping tomorrow, go to that shop again and buy her some good bras with nice wide padded straps. The least we can do is make sure she’s comfortable.”

Katie was sliding the lasagne trays into the oven as the front door opened and Jenny led Poppy and Belle into the kitchen.

“Are you OK,” Katie asked.

Poppy silently walked across the kitchen, climbed on my lap and wrapping her arms around me as she started to cry.

“That’s the right house,” Jenny said quietly, “It’s all boarded up but the steel panel over the front door is loose, you can easily walk right in. We drove back following turns Poppy thinks she made; the poor girl walked nearly 5 miles.”

I ran my fingers through Poppy’s hair as her tears ran silently down my shirt.

“So what do we do now?” I asked.

“I’m going to take the car back and fill out the forms to get a full search organised tomorrow.”

“What time will you be home, mum?” Katie asked.

“Oh, I don’t know, a couple of hours maybe.”

“We’ve made lasagne, for Poppy...”

Poppy lifted her head a little, “lasagne?” she asked, wiping her nose on her sleeve, “is there garlic bread?”

“There will be.”

“Save me some,” Jenny asked as she kissed Poppy’s forehead, “I’ll warm it up when I get home.”

Lia started slicing a French stick, “ohh Belle, I nearly forgot, can you call Helen.”

“It’s about Maisie,” Katie added.

“Oh, great. I’ll facetime her on my iPad.”

Belle pulled her iPad from her bag, set it up on the table and she’s soon connected to Helen.

“Hi Belle, how did the road trip work out?”

“Ahh, it’s the house, Poppy’s all sad now, she’s sat on dad’s knee, having a cuddle.”

“Well, that should perk her up.”

“Not as much as hearing we’re having lasagne for tea did,” Poppy called out.

“Hahaha, well, that works too,” Helen replied, “anyway, I had a chat with Maisie’s mum today.”

“Ohh, how did that happen?”

“Now I’m a counsellor I used my newfound power to call her into school for a welfare check.”

“You can do that? Could you call Alex and Jenny in?”

“Yep. So, it’s not good news I’m afraid, and I really think we need to report her father.”

“Oh no, I’m not sure I want to know what’s being going on.”

“To be fair, nobody really knows the extent of what’s been going on, well, except her dad obviously. He used a lot of drugs on them both.”

“Oh man, this is horrible.”

“Yep, I agree. So, we have a dilemma, Belle, if we report her dad, get him arrested and he loses his job at the church, they’ll be homeless, as the house belongs to the church.”

Belle got up from the table and walked around the kitchen to gather her thoughts, “can you still hear me from over here?”

“Yes Belle, I can hear you fine.”

“So, if we ignore this, and we believe Maisie when she says she’s actually safe, because she’s too old for him or whatever.”

She wandered across to the counter and picked up the garlic butter, “mmm, add a little parsley, she likes it like that,” she told Lia, “could I have a can of coke please.”

Katie passed Lia a sprig of parsley and a can of coke to Belle.

“What do I do with this?” Lia asked.

“Oh sorry, pass me a sharp knife please,” she started to finely chop the parsley, “can you still hear me, Helen?”

“Yes, I can hear you OK.”

“So, Maisie will be fine, but paedos can’t be cured, he’ll be doing his vile shit to some other poor girl, probably someone in the church who really believes he’s doing god’s work by raping their kids.”

“That’s what I was thinking,” Helen replied.

“So, either way, he needs to be stopped, and that will leave Maisie and Janet homeless.”

“That’s the dilemma, Belle.”

She finished chopping the parsley and passed the chopping board to Lia, “just tip it in the butter and swirl it around.”

Belle picked up her can and started to pace across the room for a moment, “ahh, bollocks Helen, what are we going to do?” she asked as she took a long pull of her coke. “Whoops, pardon me,” she apologised after a long burp, “I drank that too fast I think,” she giggled, “ok, so, we know Maisie’s moved around, so it wouldn’t be too much of a problem for them to move once more.”

“But how will they afford to live round here on her mum’s wages, she only works in a supermarket,” Katie asked.

“I’m thinking of them moving out of London, I need to phone Amber, I’ll phone you back in a few minutes Helen.”

“Before you go, I phoned my surgeon today, he doesn’t advise performing breast reductions until a person is fully grown, or there can be complications.”

“Ahh well, I thought that might be the case. I’ll take her shopping tomorrow and buy her some really good quality bras, the one she was wearing on Monday was rubbish.”

“That will help her a lot. When you’ve spoken to Amber, tell Jenny I’m going to report him on Monday.”

“Do you have to wait that long?” Belle asked.

“I could do it tomorrow, but unless there’s credible, immediate danger, nothing will be done until Monday anyway, this way we’ve got a couple of days to prepare Maisie and Janet.”

“That’s true, I’ll get back to you after I’ve spoken to Amber and mum.”

“Oh shit, why are there so many horrible people,” Belle sighed as she waited for Amber to answer.

Amber sounded flustered when she answered the call, “I’m sorry Belle, I was in the shower.”

“I’ll call back if you need to dry yourself properly.”

“Oh no, I can finish drying myself while we chat, as long as there’s no-one there who shouldn’t be watching.”