‘You don’t look poorly.’

‘Daddy said I’m sick,’ Eliza said.

‘Did he? Oh, well, if Daddy thinks you should stay off school, then I guess he must be right.’

Eliza gave a half-smile and continued to pull her doll apart.

‘Don’t you like that dolly, Eliza?’

Eliza looked up, a puzzled expression on her dirty face. ‘Of course I like her. She’s just like me.’ She held the dismembered torso of the plastic doll up for Muriel to see.

‘Oh. I’m not sure I understand. Why is she like you, Eliza?’

Muriel thought she saw the flutter of the curtain in the front room of the bungalow, and her heart gave a jolt. If Billy had seen or heard her, she’d best be quick and get out of there. It wasn’t like she could say she happened to be passing, not when his bungalow was the last in the cul-de-sac – she had no reason to be there.

‘Because she hurts too,’ Eliza said simply as she let the body drop. Then, Eliza looked back down to the ground and picked up the head. Muriel watched in stunned silence as Eliza shoved a broken arm inside the head’s cavity, her lips stretched into a huge smile as she did it. Something about the scene was so bizarre, so disturbing, that Muriel wanted to run away from it. This child was damaged.

And there was only one explanation as far as Muriel was concerned.

She wasn’t sure she wanted to speak to Eliza anymore. Maybe she’d got what she came for. As Muriel straightened and prepared to walk away, Eliza stood up. Her dress was filthy with dried mud from the ground. But a splash of red stopped Muriel in her tracks.

‘Oh, sweetie – are you bleeding?’

Eliza looked down at the red stain on her dress and smiled. ‘Oh, no. That’s not my blood.’

Muriel’s mouth opened and closed, no words escaping it.

‘What the hell are you doing?’ a voice bellowed, loud and angry.

Muriel gave an involuntary shriek – it’d taken her totally by surprise. She’d been too preoccupied to notice Billy coming outside.

‘Sorry,’ she rasped. ‘I was only asking Eliza—’

‘I suggest you bugger off! Nosy cow.’ He spat at the ground in front of Muriel before sweeping one hand around Eliza’s middle and lifting her up. With her squashed under his arm like a rugby ball, he strode back inside his house, her cries of ‘No, Daddy, no!’ fading as he went.

Muriel’s legs shook. Hot tears tracked down her face. For a moment she stood, frozen to the spot, her brain refusing to send the correct signals to her limbs.

Billy Cawley was every bit the monster they’d believed him to be.

She had a lot to tell them at the Mapledon Meeting on Thursday. If she could hold off for two days.

Chapter Forty

2019

Anna

Monday 15th July

After the awkward moment between her mother and Lizzie, Anna hoped there’d be no further episodes with anyone else at the coffee and cake morning.