“He’s nuts,” Pru said, gesturing to Tim. “He’s stark raving mad.”

“So, the plan?” Rachel said.

“I agree, an absolute idiot,” said Robert.

“Shut up,” Rachel said, letting go of Edmund’s hand and holding her own up to silence Pru and Robert. “Now, what is the plan?”

“The Hamlet,” Tim said, walking up to them. “We need somewhere to take her, to think about what we are going to do, make a more final decision.”

“How are we going to get into The Hamlet, Einstein?” Robert said, a little too loudly.

“Amber,” Tim said, softly.

“What?” said about three of them at once. It didn’t really matter which ones.

Tim just looked at them all in turn.

Robert threw up his hands. “That’s pretty bloody psycho, Tim.”

“Is it?” Tim said.

“Yes, it is,” Robert said, finally.

“Let’s just hear him out, okay,” Rachel said. “Tim, please, what’s your plan?”

Tim nodded, grateful that she was there and then feeling guilty about it. “Amber’s staying at The Hamlet. The Acker family are away and entrusted the keys to her so she could feed the hamster. She decided she might as well just stay there instead. She’ll help us. She’ll give us shelter, give us a place to hide the body, until we figure this out together. Because right now, that’s all we have.”

“We really want to bring her into this?” Robert said. “I mean, I know we’re not the Scooby-Doo gang, but she isn’t exactly part of the group, is she? How do we know that bitch won’t turn us in the first chance she gets?”

“Because she’s obsessed with me,” Tim said bluntly. “And I’m sorry, but right now, we have to use that.”

Pru scoffed. “Taking Little Miss Loved Up out of the equation, are we really going to reward The Hamlet—our favorite place in the entire world—by bringing a dead body into it?”