He shook his head. ‘No,’ he said. ‘Once she’d been with him – in that way – she was lost to me. I needed her to be perfect.’ He wrinkled his nose in disgust. ‘She let him do it to her. I don’t think she wanted to – she was misguided – but he led her astray. I watched it happen. He ruined her.’

Maggie felt she was losing her grip on the conversation. ‘How do you know they weren’t just friends?’

‘Because they were doing it, Fruitcake. She was letting him. I saw them.’

‘You saw them? Where?’

‘In his house. His parents were out and I watched them go inside. They closed the curtains in an upstairs window, but they didn’t lock the door. I let myself in and heard them. Heard their grunts.’ He shuddered in disgust. ‘I went to look, so I could be sure.’ He breathed in deeply. ‘And there they were. The door was ajar. I watched them. It was disgusting.’

Maggie closed her eyes as tightly as she could. This man had spied on her mum and her boyfriend, crept into a house and watched them have sex. And now she was in some prison he’d made. This was more fucked up than she had imagined.

He tapped her on the shoulder and she opened her eyes. He leaned forward. ‘You are the same, Maggie. You have the same light. And I saw the fate coming to claim you, and I could not let it. Once you were with that boy, I knew I had to save you. And now you are safe. Your light will never go out.’

‘Me and Kevin are friends,’ she said. ‘That’s all.’

‘For now. But he would do the same to you as that animal did to your mother. And I had to keep you safe. Keep your light shining.’

‘But I’m trapped,’ Maggie said. ‘There is no light in here. This is no life.’