‘Oh my God. You’re having a laugh now.’

‘I need you to get a message to Jarvis Burton.’

Jon started coughing and spluttering down the phone. ‘Are you k-kidding me? I don’t have Jarvis on speed dial, you know. That man is lethal with a side order of sadistic and I have no intention of turning up as a blip on his radar.’

‘Jon, I wouldn’t be asking you this if it wasn’t really important. I need you to get a message to Jarvis and only Jarvis. It’s vital.’

‘Why do I like you?’ Jon grumbled.

‘Because I’m adorable.’

‘Not so much at the arse-crack of dawn when you’re asking me to get into illegal shit including with someone from the Outfit,’ Jon argued.

‘So will you do it?’ I asked.

‘What’s the message?’ he said with suspicion.

‘I need you to tell Jarvis that I know who murdered Dan Jeavons.’

‘What? Is that true? You know who killed Dan?’

‘No, but I need him to believe I have that information.’

‘Why?’

I ignored Jon’s question. ‘So will you do it?’

‘Persephone, you’re playing with fire here and I don’t want to be in the firing line when you get burned.’

‘That’s a lot of fiery metaphors. Are they all leading up to a yes?’ I said.

‘I’m getting off the phone before you can ask me for anything else,’ said Jon.

‘So you’ll do what I asked?’

‘Yeah. Yeah. But that’s the end of it.’

‘If you follow my instructions, I won’t trouble you again – for today at least. You can go back to sleep.’

‘No, I’m wide awake now. Thanks for that. Bye, Sephy.’

twenty-one. Libby

I woke to a number of my senses being pummelled at once. The temperature in the basement had dropped from fridge to freezer, so never mind dying of hunger and thirst, hypothermia was going to kick our butts long before then. A foul stench squatting like a fat toad beneath my nostrils smothered my mouth. Even though the slop bucket was across the room, Troy and I had both used it in the night and the cellar wasn’t wide enough for either of us to now escape the stink. Mind you, thanks to Troy and his junk-food habits, the moon wouldn’t have been far enough away.

The single unadorned bulb lighting the room had begun to hiss and fizz intermittently. It didn’t have long for this world. When it finally blew, Troy and I would be left in deep, cloying darkness. And then I would freak – I just knew it. I’ve never been a fan of the dark. The last couple of days definitely took the gold medal for being the shittiest of my life.