She didn’t know what time the man would come. She guessed he would take Max when – if – he brought breakfast. He would know that this time she would have no doubts what he wanted, so he would not want to come down to the room twice.

Which meant she had to be ready. As soon as she heard the scrape she had to be able to hide Max in the bath. She had removed the wooden base and measured the space between the floor and the base; he would fit, just. Then she could put the base back and cover him. And then, when the man was here, she would take whatever advantage of his confusion she could.

First, though, she needed Max to learn his part in the plan.

‘Max,’ she said. ‘I have a new game for your birthday. It’s called hide and seek.’

‘What is it?’

‘You hide and I look for you. When you’re hidden you have to be very quiet. Want to try?’

2

She called Max over.

‘This is a really great place to hide. I’ll show you.’

She picked him up and put him in the bath.

‘Lie down.’ Max did as she said and she picked up the base. ‘I’m going to put this in place,’ she said. ‘It’ll be dark, but don’t worry. And then you stay quiet. Whatever I say, you have to be silent, OK?’

Max nodded. Maggie lay the base on top of him. A cursory glance would have shown it to be out of place, but it was something. The man would have to walk over to the bath to look and maybe that would be an opportunity for her. For what, she didn’t know. But for something.

‘Are you OK?’ she said.

There was no reply. Good. He knew to be quiet. It was ironic, but one of the results of living in the room was that Max was not scared of the dark. As a small girl she’d been terrified of sleeping without a light on in her room. If she ever woke up in darkness she would scream until her mum or dad came to her room and turned on a light.

Max had no such luxury. If the man switched off the light, the room was pitch-black until he switched it on again.

‘Max?’ She put on a deep voice, imitating the man. ‘This is the man speaking. Are you there?’

Max did not reply.

She stomped around the room. ‘Where are you, Max? I need to talk to you.’

Still no reply.

‘Max.’ She spoke louder, putting a threatening tone into her voice. ‘You’d better come out now or there’ll be big trouble. Do you hear me?’

There was a long silence. After a few minutes had passed, she walked to the bath and lifted out the base.

Max grinned up at her. ‘Was I good?’