Nothing existed during those hours except for Jerry; it was as if the pair of them were totally alone in the universe. All she heard, as the last of the evening light faded and black night closed in, was his voice, talking of madness and murder. All she saw were those small, moist eyes behind the orange lenses, as he spoke about the people he had strangled, stabbed, bludgeoned and smothered.

‘Oh, darling, you’re doing so well,’ said Becky, stroking her hair. ‘And it gives us a chance to get out of here. Does he ever leave the room?’

‘He never leaves the table.’

‘You have to get him to leave you alone, even for just a second, and then you can do something.’

Karin wanted to cry. ‘He won’t, I can’t.’

But her friend took her hand. ‘You can do this, Kaz, I know you can, you can get us out, which is why you’re my best friend.’

Karin felt a hard knot of gratitude clench in her chest. Everyone lay still, but she knew Simon was the only one who was asleep. The cellar was filled with the stench of his feverish sweat as he tossed and turned. Everyone else was thinking about what would happen to them. Jerry couldn’t keep them down here for ever, but neither could he let them go home; if he did, he would go to prison. Nobody wanted to say out loud what he would have to do with them.

‘He likes you. Why does he like you?’

‘He doesn’t,’ Karin said quickly, because she didn’t want it to be true, she didn’t want to be his friend.

‘Then why does he always take you upstairs?’

He had smelled her loneliness, because he was also desperate to love and be loved. We love too much, as if love was a crime! But Jerry was mad, he was repulsive. It made Karin sick just thinking about it. She was nothing like him – nothing!

‘You have to gain his trust.’ Becky lifted herself on to an elbow. ‘Be nice to him, and then get us out.’

‘But how?’ Karin asked miserably.

‘Run away, get help. There’ll come a time when you’ll get a chance and you must take it.’ Karin let out a fearful sigh, but Becky said again, ‘I love you, and I know you can do it!’

And Karin knew then that she was capable, because Becky had told her she was.

They listened to Jerry moving about upstairs, as he did all day and night. Sometimes, when he had delivered Karin back to the cellar in the early morning, his restless footsteps moved back and forth for hours afterwards.

‘You have to get us out, Karin. We’re all counting on you, I’m counting on you. If you get us out of here, I’ll love you for ever.’