Runaway Girl: A beautiful girl. Trafficked for sex. Is there nowhere to hide?

Adrianna looked across the boating lake. Wistfully, I wondered? ‘Very cold where I come from,’ she said. ‘Much more cold than here. Freeze end of your nose,’ she added, touching the tip of Marley Mae’s.

But where? Where in the north? I filed the exchange away.

And it was through Marley Mae that we had another small breakthrough.

An enthusiastic if not entirely graceful young dancer, Marley Mae enjoyed the privilege of being able to start early in Lauren’s once-a-week pre-schoolers dance class. It was for three- to five-year-olds really, and she wasn’t three till April, but in a ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ sisterly kind of arrangement, Lauren said she’d take her – she was desperate to go – and, in return, Riley was happy to take Dee Dee off Lauren’s hands for a couple of hours a week so she could go shopping.

Marley Mae couldn’t have been more excited. And, with her leotard and tutu having arrived when we got back to Lauren’s after our latest park visit, she naturally had to try it on then and there. She looked like a real little ballerina after Adrianna scooped up her curls and fashioned them into a perfect bun on top of her head.

‘Now you dance, Ad-i-annie!’ she commanded, once she’d helped her wriggle into her outfit. ‘We’ll do twirling and splits,’ she added helpfully. So it was that when Lauren returned from the kitchen, where she’d made us all drinks, it was to find the four of us – me and Dee Dee having been very much included – being taught a few basic ballet steps.

Lauren clocked this immediately. ‘You can dance,’ she said to Adrianna as she put the tray down in a sensible, out-of-the-way-of-dancing-toddlers place.

Adrianna blushed. ‘I know ballet,’ she said shyly.

‘So I see,’ Lauren said. ‘You’ve danced a lot?’

A shadow seemed to cross Adrianna’s face. And, remembering my first impressions about her bearing, I made a mental note of that, too.

She nodded. ‘I did dance classes. Long time,’ she admitted.

‘Well, there’s a turn-up,’ Lauren said. ‘And you know what,’ she added, glancing at me, ‘if Casey’s okay with it, I could always use an extra pair of hands in the studio. If you fancy it, that is.’