Patrick jumped onto the bed, threw his arms around Sean and hefted him up, grunting with exertion. But it was impossible to reach the belt while holding Sean, who was hanging limp. Patrick let go and reached up with both hands to detach the belt from the light fitting. Sean’s body dropped and landed with his lower half on the bed, his head and shoulders on the floor. He wasn’t breathing. Patrick knelt beside the body just as Eileen entered the room, saw her son and started screaming.

Fifteen minutes later, after a futile attempt at CPR, with Eileen’s screams drilling into his skull as he tried to bring her son back to life, Patrick had managed to get Eileen out of the room and onto the sofa, where she sat staring into space. Patrick called the station and told them what had happened.

Sean Philips had lied about recognising his ex-wife, then immediately hanged himself. What was he hiding? Was he somehow involved in Frankie’s disappearance? Patrick had looked around the house but there was no sign of a suicide note. No explanation other than the one that turned Patrick’s insides to ice. That seeing the picture of his ex-wife on Patrick’s phone had pushed Sean over the edge.

Patrick needed to talk to Eileen more, and he also had to urgently find out where Helen was.

He went back into the living room. Eileen was in deep shock. He sat down opposite her and reached out a hand. She looked catatonic, barely breathing. She held her cigarettes in her hand, as if she intended to light one but was frozen. For a moment Patrick was afraid she might have had a stroke. She was in no fit state to talk now.

Do you believe that people can be cursed?

Frustration gnawed at his insides. He now knew who had taken Frankie, but not if the little girl was alive or dead, or why Sean’s ex-wife, Penny, had done it. Where the hell were they?

Too many questions. Did Helen know the truth, that she wasn’t really dead? Was it only Alice who had been kept in the dark?

He needed to talk to Helen urgently. For one thing, she needed to know what had happened here. But he also had a feeling she held a vital piece of the puzzle.

He heard cars pull up outside, the slamming of doors, heavy footsteps coming towards the house. Soon, this house of horror would be sealed off for the second time in a week, and Sean’s body would be taken away.