‘You know,’ he seethed. ‘You fucking know everything. And you’re gonna tell me, one way or another.’ He pulled me into the living room by my hair – it had been trashed again, like before when the men had shot the place up except this time the windows were intact – it was everything else that wasn’t. Kitchen cupboards spewed open, drawers were pulled out, the TV was riddled with bullet holes and most of the sofa cushions lay ripped and torn. There were even some large, raggedy holes in the walls.

‘What the f—’

But before I could blink, his fist smashed into my face.

‘Todos ellos, los niños. Tráemelas. Todos ellos, los niños. Tráemelas. No me importa. Llega aquí ahora, rapido.’

I stirred slowly, my face stinging, brain throbbing. Paco’s voice – a one-way phone conversation. He was pacing the kitchen.

‘Esperamos a que la rata tome el queso.’

I lay on the rug, my vision all blurry, watching him from the floor, pacing up and down, opening the fridge, tossing stuff down on the counter, tearing packets. The click-hiss of a soda can.

‘Hey, you’re awake!’ said Paco, tossing his phone onto the kitchen island and coming back towards me. ‘I made you a sandwich.’ He settled a plate next to my head and placed the soda can beside it. ‘We’re gonna be here a while.’

There was a short wheeze of air behind me and I tilted my head to see Arturo, his cheek smushed into the floor, dead eyes staring, blood pumping from his neck into the rug.

‘He wanted to untie you,’ said Paco, crunching through an apple.

I went to stand up but my left arm was tethered – he’d cuffed it to the fender. ‘The fuck?’

Paco pulled over footstool and sat beside me, still crunching through the apple. I tugged on the cold bracelet but it was locked solid. I wasn’t going anywhere. He ran his thumb over my top lip and showed me my own blood. ‘You start talking, I’ll unlock it. You stay silent, you bleed more, understand?’

‘Talk about what? I don’t know anything!’

‘OK, lemme explain it like the baby you are.’ He threw the apple core into the cold fireplace and gripped my chin again. ‘I come here yesterday to find the house empty and both Tenoch and the doctor gone. And I want to know where they went and where my money is. I worked with that man half my life, and half of what he has is mine. So if he’s taken it, that’s on you.’

‘He didn’t tell me he was going, let alone where to. I only came back to say goodbye to him and pack my bag.’

Paco laughed, glancing over at Arturo’s body. ‘I don’t believe you.’

‘Tenoch trusted you.’