help. Is there something you want to tell me about, Chloe?’
‘No.’
I’m not giving up that easily. ‘Is it your mum’s boyfriend – Pete? Are you scared of him?’
She curls her lip.
‘Is it someone else? Are you still seeing Josh?’ She sometimes goes out with an older boy who lives on her estate. He’s not exactly a dream date; the rumour is he’s a drug dealer.
She doesn’t answer me.
I take a breath. ‘Okay. Something’s upset you, or someone has. You were doing so well, what happened?’
Slowly, Chloe begins to speak. ‘I can’t tell, he says he’ll… he’ll… lose his job.’
‘I don’t understand, he’ll lose his job because…?’ I reach my hand out to her at the table, but she draws hers away.
This bothers me. Everything about Chloe’s life bothers me at the moment. Here is a young girl with her whole life ahead of her, a sixteen-year-old who feels lost and confused, like I once had. ‘This person… Why would he lose his job? Are you having a relationship with him, Chloe?’ She’s only recently turned sixteen, if she’s been having a sexual relationship with someone lately, she was probably underage. Whoever it is, he could not just lose his job, but go to prison.
She takes another sip of Coke. This is an older, harder Chloe than the one I’ve been dealing with these past few months. One of the most frustrating things about my job is that child protection plans rarely cover the full range of needs a vulnerable child may have. Work pressures, high caseloads and limited resources mean that kids like Chloe can slip through the net too easily. I watch her now, sipping her Coke, avoiding my eyes, and I know she’s hiding something. But if she’s in an inappropriate relationship with someone, even her mother’s boyfriend, all I can do is strongly advise her against it and offer guidance. I can also offer practical help, and find her somewhere else to live where she’s less vulnerable to his advances.
‘Talk to me, Chloe,’ I say gently.
She doesn’t speak, just puts her head down.
‘It’s okay. You can talk to me, you won’t be in trouble.’
‘No but he will be. He made me swear never to tell.’
‘That’s because he’s in the wrong.’ I lean across the table so I can ask quietly, ‘Is he much older than you?’
She nods, very slowly.
I try to sound casual. ‘Okay, so, have you been with him long?’ I need to coax it out of her rather than make her feel under pressure.
‘Couple of years,’ she murmurs, and I try not to register my horror. This means she was thirteen or fourteen when the relationship started.
‘Is it a… friend of your mum’s?’
She shakes her head.
‘If you don’t want to tell me Chloe, that’s up to you. I can’t make you talk about it. I just want you to trust me and know that if he’s threatened you, or if you’re scared of him for any reason, I can help you.’
She stops sipping on her Coke and looks up at me for a split second then bursts into tears. I watch, surprised, as she falls apart, all the brittleness cracking and melting in the onslaught of emotion. The hurt and confused child emerges from under the hard black-lined eye make-up. I hand her a paper napkin, and tell her I’m here and I can help her, but I’m not sure she hears me.
We stay in the coffee shop for another hour, and I try every which way to get more information from her. But she’s been told not to tell, and even my gentle questioning, my offers of help and my reassurances that she will be kept safe don’t make any difference, and by the time the paper napkin has been shredded between her thin, little-girl fingers covered in rings and home-made tattoos, my hope fades. It might be out of fear, or loyalty, but Chloe isn’t going to tell me anything about the man who’s been sleeping with her since she was thirteen years old. I promise her that as soon as she wants to tell me or she needs my help, I’m here.
As the waitress sweeps the floor, and the light fades outside, my thoughts return to Chloe’s immediate situation. Right now, I may not be able to find out who her abuser is, and I may not be able to keep her from seeing him, but I can find her somewhere safe to stay tonight.
‘So, Chloe, I’m going to call round a