Her voice shook when she spoke. She put up a hand to her mouth as if she could stop the trembling but her hand shook too. “It’s in the bank. I put it in the bank.”

“You never. You haven’t got no bank account.”

“Silver’s account,” she managed to say.

Silver said, “Take your hands off her shoulders, you’re hurting her.” Jonny did, just about. His hands slid down onto her forearms. People usually did what Silver told them. “All I’ve got in my account is the money her dad sent her for her airfare.”

“You sodding little liar,” Jonny said to Liv.

“Don’t speak to her like that!” Morna stood over him, big, powerful, well-muscled Morna. He took no notice of her. The phone began ringing again. Quite a lot more than half an hour had passed since the Almquists phoned the first time and asked Liv to call them back. It was plain no one was going to answer it, but the ringing, from a source she was as aware of as any of us, seemed to give Liv courage.

“I put it on the roofs,” she said.

“You what?”

“I am wrapping it up in a bag, the bag of plastic food is in, and hiding it on the roofs. When I am up there I am hiding it.”

“You’re mad.”

Liv shrugged. “So I am mad. I hide it where no one ever find it.”

The ringing stopped. Silver and I looked at each other. Silver said, “Give me your parents’ number. I’m going to call them and tell them you’re ill. You’ll come home when you’re better. Okay?”

Liv hardly bothered to turn her head. “Okay.” She had the number in her head, of course, and reeled it off.

I went into the bedroom with Silver, and Morna came with us. We sat on the bed, all three of us, and hugged one another, and then Silver phoned the Almquists. I could hear Liv and Jonny arguing, then the sound of a blow and a scream from Liv. I went straight back and found her lying on the floor, holding one hand to her mouth. Blood was coming from between her fingers. Jonny was nowhere to be seen.

“What has he done to you?” I said.

“Nothing. I myself,” she said, a bit like Desdemona.