‘Who’s next, gatita? Come on, I give you one more chance. And for every single fucking minute more you keep me waiting, I will kill them, one by one.’ He squeezed the child’s throat, tighter. Her face bloomed red, little wet cheeks bulging with the pressure.

‘I DON’T…’ I sobbed. ‘I DON’T KNOW WHERE HE IS! HE DIDN’T TELL ME! PLEASE, PACO! I’LL DO ANYTHING BUT I SWEAR I DON’T KNOW. I’LL HELP YOU, I’LL HELP YOU FIND HIM. AND THE MONEY.’

Quick as a flash, he pulled his pistol from his jeans and pointed it at Ming, standing in the kitchen. As Ming tipped his head back to drink his soda, Paco called out, ‘Yo, Domingo!’

The trigger clicked as Ming turned to face him and a hole blew clean through his forehead. He lurched back against the refrigerator, the soda can flying from his grasp in a shower of his own blood and he slumped to the kitchen floor in a big, fat heap.

Saúl screamed and huddled next to his brother’s body on the floor, hiding his face in his neck.

‘Big to small, Sweetpea. You ready for the next one?’

Mátilda passed out cold in Paco’s hard embrace. Saúl started screaming and Paco barked at him to be quiet, eventually dragging both him and Mátilda out into the hall. I heard the broom closet door creak open and Saúl screaming still behind his gag as Paco threw them both inside, ordering them to stay quiet. He shut the door and came back into the living room, kicking David’s lifeless body as he passed. The boy groaned. A small chink of light cut into me – David was alive. I hadn’t failed him.

Where there was life, there was hope. But Paco pointed the gun at his head and—

‘NO!’ I screamed. ‘WAIT!’

He came back towards me, tilting his head like he hadn’t quite heard. ‘Did you say wait?’

‘The arrr-artillery,’ I stammered. ‘S-s-ecret room.’

‘Secret room?’ smiled Paco. ‘There’s a secret room? I fucking KNEW you knew something. Where? Where is it?’

‘I’ll tell you if you let them all go. Please, Paco.’

‘No, no, you tell me now. I check, then I let them go.’ He aimed the gun back at David.

‘Off-office. In the office. Behind the b-b-b-bookcase. There’s a hidden p-p-panel. If you press the wall in two places, east and west, gently, it will open. It is behind there, a secret room, I swear.’

Paco glared at me, holding the pistol to my skull.

‘It’s in there. Go look. I promise you.’

He grinned, scratching his temple with the muzzle of the gun. ‘If I not find what I’m looking for in there, I will blow holes in all three of them. And then you.’ And he left the room.