He shovelled the last mouthful of his meal into his mouth and drained the can. He burped again and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.

‘All right, all right. You can use the phone – after I check something.’

He put his plate on the floor beside the chair and stood up, swaying slightly. The can fell to the ground, the last couple of drops oozing onto the carpet.

‘Come here,’ he said, slurring his words. He curled his finger at me and beckoned me towards him.

‘Wh-wh-why?’

‘’Cos I’ve got to check you ain’t stole nothin’. Come here.’

‘I haven’t stolen anything. I already told you that.’

‘COME HERE!’ He bellowed the words so loudly that the ground seemed to quake. I jumped and obeyed, walking slowly, fighting tears.

‘What’s this stupid thing you’re wearin’?’ he said, waving his hand at my brown sack dress.

I didn’t reply. I stopped a little way from him.

He stepped forward, bringing us so close that his foul body odour enveloped my whole body. From here, I could see an intricate network of spiky red veins on his nose and cheeks. Black hairs sprouted out of his bulbous nose above dry, cracked lips.

I hesitated. A mad thought seized me and I kicked him as hard as I could in his groin. He roared with pain and doubled over. I ran for the door, yanked it open, darted up the hallway into the kitchen, opened the other door and sprinted out of the house.

The black dogs snapped their jaws and barked viciously as I ran past, but they were caged and I was free. I didn’t spare them a second look as I ran past the man’s rusty blue truck and headed in the direction Emma had gone.

Chapter 31

The sun blinded me, my leg throbbed and my feet left bloody prints on the pale, cracked earth. Every few seconds, I glanced over my shoulder, convinced I was being followed by the man from Knackers Yard. I had made it to the next patch of land, which was more a desert than a field. The ground was hard and rough with the occasional clump of sprouting vegetation, so dry and hot beneath my sore feet that it felt like I was running on baked sandpaper. My soles were burning and the pain was becoming unbearable. Not too far away though, beyond this bare stretch, I could see a bright yellow field. Surely the ground there would be cooler, damper.

I looked around me. Heard no one. Saw no one. But I couldn’t stop shaking.

‘Emma!’ I shouted her name over and over again until my voice cracked.