Visiting times had long been over and the hospital seemed quiet. The canteen had been closed since teatime but a family were sitting around one of the tables, drinking machine coffees and eating a pizza that they must have ordered in. Gina had left the station late the previous night, but had managed to lie in until almost lunchtime before continuing with the case paperwork.

She headed towards ward twelve, where she knew Christina Dawson was.

All she could hear was her shoes tapping on the floor as she headed towards the ward. She squirted a bit of alcohol rub on her hands before pressing the buzzer. A nurse let her in. ‘DI Harte. I’ve come to see Christina Dawson.’

‘Private room, first on the left.’

She passed the nurses’ station and glanced through the wards that branched off. Most patients were watching the screens over their beds. Her gaze was drawn to Julia Dawson who was texting outside Christina’s room. ‘How is she?’ Gina asked.

‘Asleep,’ she replied with a smile. Gina glanced through the window in the door. The girl had a drip going into her arm and seemed to be sleeping soundly. ‘They’ve given Christina a mild sedative. She’s malnourished so they’re tube feeding her. They told us about the drugs and they are dealing with that too. I don’t understand these things. I can’t believe what those animals did to her.’ She closed his eyes and held on to the wall to steady herself.

‘Are you alone?’

A tear slipped down the woman’s cheek. ‘I threw Roy out. It’s just the two of us now. He drove her away and I’ll never forgive him for that.’ Julia pulled a crumpled tissue from her pocket and wiped her chapped nose. ‘I found out he told Christina that she was making me miserable and that she should leave. She’d taken it to heart and done exactly that. He drove her away.’ The woman sobbed. ‘How did I not see it?’

‘All that matters now is that you’re there for her. What you’ve been through is one of the hardest things a parent could ever experience. She’s suffered a lot. She will need you to be there through every step of her recovery. Just be there, give her a lot of love and support. She needs you to be strong.’

A smile spread across the woman’s face. ‘I’m going to be so strong. I’m determined to be everything she needs me to be. Thank you for coming and thank you for what you did today. We’ve been told. Christina was exhausted after talking to the other detective, Wyre. She wasn’t really with it but she was so happy to see me. She held me so tightly, I thought she’d never let me go. Thank you so much for finding my daughter,’ Julia said as she wiped a tear away.

Gina glanced through the window at Christina. Yesterday she hadn’t known if the girl would pull through. She wanted to go home and celebrate too. Before popping back to the station for the debriefing, she was going to go to the wine shop, buy a nice red and a large bag of crisps. She was going to go home, run a hot bath and enjoy the wine.

As she left the hospital, her phone beeped. It was a message from Briggs.

She placed her phone in her pocket. She didn’t need a curry and she didn’t need him. She was going home to call her daughter. Their stand-off had lasted long enough and Gina was going to be grown up enough to break it.