“He’s here,” I whisper. “Will.”

“Will is looking after Aaron,” Jane replies. But the tremble in her lips gives her away.

I think they buried him here. They’ve brought us to his grave to warn us, and, if I don’t stop, Aaron’s could be the next initials in the middle of nowhere.

“I will do whatever it takes to protect my family,” Jane says. “I’m not scared of what you think you know. Knowledge doesn’t always give you the upper hand, Tom. Sometimes it makes you an easy target.”

Nia jumps forward too quickly for me to stop, but I grab her hand and pull when she’s half a step from Amy’s mum.

“Don’t fucking threaten him,” Nia says. “Tell us where Aaron is or I swear to God…” She looks fierce, but I can feel her shaking.

Jane smiles. “Of course. But that’s the end of it. Tom is not to see Amy again. He will not try to speak to Will. And, if you call the police, I’ll show them the evidence I’ve compiled.”

Before I can ask what she means, she steps forward and holds out her phone.

“This is security footage of the night you and your friend broke into my garden. And these are photographs of the two occasions you stood below my son’s window and damaged my property.”

When Jane sees my face, she leans in too close and says, “You weren’t the only one watching.”

83

Nia reaches for her phone and says, “I’m calling my dad.”

“And telling him what?” Jane replies. “You don’t know where you are. And I have your brother. This would go a lot more smoothly if you accepted my terms and we took you home ourselves.”

“I’m not getting in a car with you. You’re a psycho. We’ll walk.”

“That would be a mistake,” Jane says. “We didn’t choose this place by accident. There’s nothing for quite some time.”

Nia’s fingers curl into fists, and, for a moment, I think she’s going to attack. Instead, her knuckles tighten then soften, over and over again, until eventually she says, “Whatever you want. We’ll do it.”

Jane smiles like she did at the dinner party, when I mistook her menace for delight.

“Excellent,” she says. She reaches down to what I think is a gravestone and whispers something, then leads us through the clearing and back to the cars.

I do my best to remember what’s around us, but there’s nothing out of the ordinary. Everywhere is just trees and bushes and silence—the perfect hiding place for an unspeakable secret.

If they really wanted to keep this place secret, they could have blindfolded us. But they didn’t, and that’s when I realize what Jane is.