ARCHER HAS A RESTLESS NIGHT’S SLEEP, stirring often throughout the night. She wakes the following morning to the sound of voices chattering on the street outside. She yawns, stretches and rises from her bed and peers through the curtains. Outside are two men; one is showing the other his phone screen. She knows what they will be looking at. One man is talking rapidly and gesticulating with his arms as if he has never seen anything like what his neighbour has just shown him.

She hopes he hasn’t and never does again.

She has no doubt the #FatherSonAndGhost video is still online and has propagated across the Internet. The whole world will have seen it. The families and friends of Lewis Faulkner and Thomas Butler will have seen their loved ones cruelly executed online. They will have seen Jamie’s narrow escape from death and Archer’s role in his rescue, too. There will be stills, gifs and memes spreading across the Internet like pollen.

‘Good morning!’ calls Grandad.

She peeks out and sees him in his pyjamas, standing in the doorway of his bedroom.

‘Morning, Grandad. How are you?’

‘A bit rundown, but I’m OK. I’m going back to bed, Grace, if you don’t mind. I just needed to pop to the men’s room.’

‘Can I get you anything?’

He raises his hand and yawns. ‘No, no. I took two sleeping tablets and haven’t quite woken up. Are you off to work?’

‘Yes. You haven’t seen the news then?’

He shakes his head. ‘I’ve been sleeping. Besides, it’s all gloom and doom. Can’t be doing with it.’

Archer smiles. ‘Sleep tight, Grandad, and call me if you need anything.’

‘Will do.’

She showers and dresses in dark jeans and a plum-coloured woollen jumper. Switching on the television, she boils the kettle and pops a slice of granary bread into the toaster. Flicking through the channels, she lands on a news report covering the murders at Twyford Abbey. A helicopter is flying over the scene giving an aerial shot of the site below, which is ringed with police tape and guarded by five uniformed officers. The anchor has a smug look about him. His face has a weird sheen and his square jaw seems to move as if it has a life of his own. Next to him is a female anchor who watches the camera with a grave expression as he gives a stilted running commentary on the events broadcasting on the screen behind him.