‘You don’t need to worry about us,’ Samson says.

Fred pats me on the spine, just above the handle of the hammer.

‘We got your back,’ he says.

Zara speaks for the first time. ‘Can I get you a drink, Lux?’ Playing the host. Maybe this is her house, not Fred’s. Her black hair shines like a grand piano. She has access to expensive shampoo, which might mean regular trips to Houston. Maybe I can join her on one of them. Escape that way.

‘No thanks.’ For all I know, Lux didn’t drink and this is a test. ‘But I could use an aspirin.’

She beams. Dazzling white teeth appear between bright red lips. ‘Coming right up.’

She walks away, with just enough sway in her hips that I feel like I’m supposed to watch. Her high heels make hardly any sound on the wooden floor, as though she’s coated the soles with felt.

‘While you’re waiting,’ Fred says, ‘you want to see where the magic happens?’

The young guy, Kyle, still hasn’t opened his mouth. He looks like I did when I aged out of foster care—dishevelled, tense, watchful. He forces a smile at me and then turns back to his phone screen.

‘Sure,’ I say.

CHAPTER 2

Keep me clean to avoid the police. Break me and you’ll cry. I’m soft on the outside, hairy on the inside. What am I?

Fred takes me through to the kitchen, which has a stone benchtop so big you could conduct autopsies on it, and the dining area, where someone has already added a seventh chair to the teak table. A bundle of yoga mats leans against a wall in the corner. These criminals do yoga?

A corridor to the right looks like it probably leads to the bedrooms and the stairs, but we go to the back door instead. Another electronic lock clicks and beeps behind us as we walk out into the December air. Fred has a little flashlight on his keys. He shines it at the dead grass as we walk.

No snow yet, but I can feel it on the way. The woods surrounding the house are dense, but the trees look dead, strangled by the frost. I guess Fred is taking me to the server room, where all the videos are stored. Servers need to be kept cool.

I’ve seen some of the recordings on Lux’s hard drive. A woman getting strangled in Tokyo, a man disembowelled in Mexico City, a teenager drowned in a bathtub in Manila, and many others which were far worse. I assume Fred is taking me to see even more.

‘I’ll get you to keep Abbey’s background on the down low.’ Fred’s breaths come out as plumes of steam. ‘The others don’t know.’

My mouth is too quick for my brain. ‘Her background?’