Gina pulled up on the narrow road at the back of Redditch Town Centre and backed into the tiniest of spaces. A young boy, with what appeared to be chocolate smeared over his face, lifted the net at the window. Another child, a girl with pigtails climbed up to the ledge and pushed him out the way. As they knocked on the door, Gina could hear what sounded like a newborn baby screaming.

Cassandra Duxford wrestled with the door, eventually managing to open it. ‘Come through,’ she said as she twisted her greasy looking blonde hair into a makeshift bun. ‘Crystal, Kyle, get off that bloody window ledge. Kids!’ A man stood in the galley kitchen, holding the baby against his greasy overall. The newborn screamed, almost wriggling out of its small nappy. As the man held the bottle to the baby’s lips, it began gulping the milk.

‘I bring new life into the world just before I find out my daughter has died. She’d have been better off with me but no, they dragged her from my arms and out of her home. Do you know, I never saw her after that? They said she didn’t want to see me but I know that can’t have been right. Those bastards robbed me of my chance to be her mother.’

Gina wasn’t going to get into the ins and outs of why Simone had been removed, she’d seen the girl’s file. She’d seen the photos of her bruising. She’d read about the extent of abuse the girl had endured. Jacob squeezed into the tiny kitchen. The bathroom door stood open. The older houses around this way quite often had bathrooms coming off the end of kitchens. The smell hit her, first urine, then faeces. Her gaze stopped on the stained carpet surrounding the toilet. She wondered how the family could cook in the kitchen, knowing that their bathroom was that filthy.

‘It’s cosy in here,’ Jacob said as he pulled out a notebook and stood behind the boyfriend. ‘Sorry, your name is?’

‘What’s it got to do with you?’ the man asked.

‘Please just tell us your name,’ Gina replied, wondering why the man seemed so uptight.

‘Steve Bell. Mechanic. I have a garage just two streets back. Thirty-two years old. These are my kids and I love them. I’ve been with Cassie for five years. Enough?’

‘Thank you,’ Jacob replied as he shifted the pan of cold beans to make room to write.

‘Steve, can you take Matty into the other room for a minute, so we can talk?’

The man nodded and left the room. ‘Don’t you upset her. She’s been through enough!’

‘Miss Duxford, we’re not here to upset you. I know the news about Simone must be hitting you hard but we want to find out how she ended up in a shallow grave in Cleevesford. Do you know how she might have got there?’

Cassie Duxford wiped a tear from the corner of her red puffy eye. She grabbed a cigarette with her chubby fingers and lit up. ‘Do you mind? I need a smoke.’

Gina shook her head.

‘I didn’t want to lose my daughter but back then…’ She paused and looked away, taking a deep breath. ‘Back then I was a different person and in a really bad place, not like now. There was a string of men, I admit it, and drugs were a problem. I would have done anything for a fix. I did do anything for a fix but I always protected Simone, as much as I could anyway.’ The woman sobbed and stubbed the barely touched cigarette out in the sink. ‘I found out my boyfriend at the time had been abusing Simone. I told him to go but he wouldn’t. Eventually he wouldn’t allow me to go out, even pimped me out to his friends. I didn’t know what day it was back then.’ She paused and inhaled on the cigarette, blowing smoke into the small room. ‘I barely remember the raid. That wasn’t me back then. I don’t know to this day how I became that woman. I wanted him to leave but I ended up being his prisoner. The thing that hurt more than anything was when they took Simone. I swore I would get off drugs and get her back, but she didn’t want me, refused to see me.’ The woman broke down, tears spilling onto the pile of dirty plates in the sink. ‘I’ll never see her again. Never get the chance to make things up to her.’ As the woman sobbed, she hyperventilated.

‘I know this is hard, Miss Duxford, and we’re so sorry for your loss.’ Gina paused for a moment while the woman blew her nose and wiped her eyes. ‘Do you know where Simone may have gone when she left her foster home? Could she have gone looking for her dad?’

‘He was a waste of space. I was fifteen, he was about twenty-five when we met. We used to meet in Redditch at the weekends. His name was Gareth. Simone knew his name was Gareth, I never hid that from her. She knew he was from Cleevesford. Has that bastard done something to her?’

‘We don’t know that. Do you know where he lived?’

‘King Street, just off the High Street. I don’t know the number. He never took me home to see his parents. I don’t think I was posh enough for them. I think they had money. Bastard dumped me. He didn’t even know he had a daughter and I never told my parents his name.’

‘Do you know his surname?’

She shook her head and wiped her eyes with a piece of kitchen roll. ‘I was with him three weeks. We had sex a couple of times in his car. After that, he didn’t want to know. That was the end. He got what he wanted and left.’

‘Did you ever tell anyone?’

‘No. I told Simone he was my boyfriend and his parents didn’t want us to be together. I also told her it was a long time ago and I hadn’t seen him since, and I haven’t – that was the truth. Back then I went to Cleevesford, hung around in the pub there. Not once did I see him. I even went to the road he lived on and looked for his car. This was when I was pregnant. I didn’t see it. Maybe he’d lied about living there. Either that or he sold his car. I wasn’t going to humiliate myself any more and start knocking on doors. He didn’t want me and I had some pride left. After that, I eventually told my parents about the baby. Couldn’t stand the lectures any more so I ended up in a mother and baby unit in a hostel, then got a flat in Redditch. My life slowly went down the pan after that but I’m clean now. I love my children and I love Steve. I’ve changed so much. Please don’t let anyone take my other children.’

The woman looked broken – a teary mess that could barely stand, leaning over the sink sobbing.

‘Are you okay?’ Steve called from the other room. The children began running around, playing a loud game.

‘I’m fine, love.’

Gina imagined what might have been going through Simone’s head. Maybe she’d been looking for her father. Had she found him or had he found her? She sent a quick message to O’Connor as the woman composed herself, asking him to get onto the council and find out anything he could about anyone named Gareth that had been registered as living in King Street. It was a long time ago now but Simone may have found something out and gone looking for him. She followed the message to O’Connor with another.

‘You’ve got to find out who put her in that grave. Please find out.’

Gina wanted to find out but not solely for Simone’s mother or her foster parents. She owed this one to Simone.