Thea steadied herself against the desk. It had all happened so quickly, but no, she didn’t think Moses had meant to kill Delores. She’d lunged for him and he’d swung out his arm in defence. But it was no matter. They had been two children in the playground, stamping their feet, crying ‘Give it here! It’s mine!’, while the school burned down around them.

‘Open the door, Moses.’

Thea tapped at the laptop and then thumped it angrily when a password box instantly appeared. Her only chance to get the video diary out lay behind a locked screen.

‘Pangolin,’ Moses muttered.

‘What?’ Thea tried a few of the drawers, looking for convenient Post-it Notes with secret passwords on them.

‘Pangolin.’ Moses looked at her from where he was sat on the floor. ‘It used to be her password. Little snouty creatures. They’re endangered. She liked them.’

He covered his face with one hand and then started thumping at his forehead with the other.

Thea gaped. But she typed it in and, when the welcome screen appeared, she took a deep breath. An internet connection may not have been provided for the clients, but Thea knew that the staff would have needed it and she was in the Staff Bubble.

The internet connection icon showed three bars.

She glanced towards the locked door, her hands shaking, expecting any second for Kyle to start pounding on it. Delores’s email account was already open and Thea shoved the memory stick into the laptop.

From outside, there came shouting.

Moses staggered to his feet, briefly looked at the screen and the title of the email she was frantically typing: ‘MUM, READ THIS. IT’S FROM THEA!!’ He stilled and she almost expected him to swipe the laptop away from her, perhaps get that ornament that now lay chipped on the floor and begin using it to break her own skull …

He blinked and rubbed at his chin, smearing blood onto it from his hands.

Then he nodded, just the once, his face serious, his eyes clear and focused. He turned to the door.

On the screen the email was marked “pending” and the circle spun.

‘Moses!’ Kyle’s voice roared from outside.

Thea nearly whimpered. The circle continued to spin. There was no way that Thea was going to leave the memory stick in the laptop – it was coming with her.

Moses lay a hand on her arm. ‘It’s okay. I can’t undo any of this,’ he said quietly, picking up the tablet he had dropped earlier and getting Delores’s gun from his pocket. ‘But there is one thing I can still do.’

He tapped on the screen.

‘I can give you a bit more time.’

The office door opened and, before Thea could say anything, he left the room.

Chapter 49

The circle spun.