‘I wouldn’t have gone if I thought you weren’t going to be there, honest. I’m so sorry, Kaz, I should have told you. Do you forgive me? I really couldn’t bear it if you didn’t forgive me.’

‘Of course I do,’ said Karin.

Then she let Becky take her in her arms and hold her. ‘Thank you, my darling, thank you so much.’

And they sat together like that for a while, and Karin felt a bit better – but then they heard footsteps pounding downstairs. The lock snapped, the cellar door was flung open, and Jerry Swann ran in. Everyone, except Simon on the floor, pressed themselves against the walls.

‘You!’ The blood froze in Karin’s veins when Jerry pointed at her. ‘Come with me!’

She shook her head, terrified.

‘Where are you taking her?’ Becky raced forward. ‘Please don’t hurt her.’

He pointed the knife into Becky’s face. ‘Keep your mouth shut or I’ll tear your throat out!’

And then Jerry grabbed Karin’s wrist and dragged her away.

She felt his fingers dig deep into the flesh of her arm as he pushed her out of the door and up the stairs.

28

At lunchtime, Karin had to get out of school, away from the noise and crowds, the whispers and glances. Sometimes she sensed a phone being lifted behind her back and guessed her image was being uploaded on to social media. She knew the hashtags:

#BadPlacebitch

#Jerrysgirl

#RememberBecky

She should take some leave, until the whole thing blew over, until Sammi came home and the news juggernaut rolled on to something else. She loved her work, teaching was her lifeline, and her year eleven pupils were about to sit their exams. She wanted to support them, but didn’t want to be a distraction.

So she went for a walk, moving at speed down side streets where she knew she wouldn’t bump into any school kids or her colleagues, gripping the phone in her pocket in case she received another message from her – she’d not received any more texts from Becky since last night but Karin lived in hope, even all these years later she still had hope – and then headed back, feeling the exercise had done her good.

She came out on the main road that led to River Hill School, saw the gates up ahead, and found herself surrounded by groups of school kids coming out of newsagents’ and cafés, eating burgers and chips from polystyrene tubs, and walking back to school for the afternoon. A couple of her pupils waved. A car slowed; the parent at the wheel gave her a cold look.

Someone called her name – ‘Karin!’ – and she instinctively stiffened, but turned to see Simon trotting towards her on the pavement.

‘What are you doing here?’ she asked him in surprise.

There was a bulging rucksack on his back, a sleeping bag rolled beneath it. ‘I wanted to say goodbye.’