It’s darkest in the corners, but there’s no way out. I focus on the silence and the cold tickling my fingers while my body burns with adrenaline.

And then I start running around the edge of the cemetery, where there are no stones blocking my way, just a clear path back to the gate. My legs are on fire, and my heart hammers in my head, but I don’t stop.

I see the entrance ahead and feel a surge of hope. I’ll get help and save Jamie and catch the Magpie Man. I see everything fall into place.

And that’s when I hear him behind me. He’s getting closer with every step. And this time when he reaches out, he grabs my shoulder and pulls me back, and I have no energy left to fight.

He pushes me to the ground, then leans over with his hands on his knees, panting.

I could try to run again, but maybe I don’t have to, because Mom’s grave is not far from Dad’s only way in.

I could piss him off so much that he kills me right here. Or I could submit, just long enough for a savior to arrive.

He waits until his breathing has slowed, then grins and says, “I like a challenge.”

I clench my fists and go for him, but he knocks them away, forcing them to my sides.

“Enough,” he snarls. Then he pulls me back to Jamie, who looks dazed, like he’s just come to.

The Magpie Man sits us next to each other and pushes the knife into my hand.

“Here’s what’s going to happen,” he says. “I’m going to make you slit his wrist, and then, very quickly, I’m going to make him slit yours. And when the police find you, it will look like you snapped and went to join your mother.

“That’s how they’ll remember you, Jessica: as a weakling who couldn’t handle it when your little show didn’t work and ended it in the most terrible way.”

There’s that grin again, the evil dripping off him. How did he go so long without being found out? How can he be two such different people at the same time? But maybe he isn’t. Maybe Bernie knows how bad he can be and that’s why she did what she did. Maybe Clara finally thought enough was enough.

“How can you do this to your daughters?” I say.

He looks angry and says, “I only have one daughter.”

“Bernie tried to kill herself because of you.”

“You have no idea,” the Magpie Man says, and I’m hoping he’s about to explain, because the longer he talks, the more chance Dad has of finding us.

“Have you hurt her?” I ask, but he doesn’t reply, forcing my fingers around the handle of the knife.