Karin stared in shock. Her eyes lifted to the pipe on the wall dropping into the floorboards, and she realized he heard everything they said in the cellar. That’s how he knew her name, and that her father had left her. Her heart leapt in terror; she wondered if he had heard them talking about escaping.

‘Are you really my friend, Karin?’ His fingers tapped the table irritably near the handle of the knife. ‘Maybe you’re like all the others and you’ve been lying to me all this time. Maybe I can’t trust you, maybe you’re just pretending to like me and you really want to leave me.’

A muscle ticked in his jaw, his lips quivered, and she decided that she had to do something, make some kind of gesture – or he would kill her, kill all of them. Despite every cell in her body screaming with disgust, she reached across the table and laid her fingers on his, forced herself to hold his gaze. He shuddered with pleasure.

‘Of course I’m your friend, Jerry. I’ll always be your friend.’

‘I really don’t know what I’d do without you,’ he whispered.

His fingers rubbed hers. Jerry’s touch made her skin crawl. It took all her willpower not to snatch her hand away from his clammy grasp.

‘Friends do things for each other,’ she said.

‘Like what?’

‘My friend Simon is ill.’

‘He’s not your friend.’

‘He needs to go to a hospital.’

He twitched. ‘That’s not going to happen.’

‘If you were my friend, Jerry, you’d help him,’ said Karin. ‘You said you would do anything for me.’

‘I said I would do anything for you, I didn’t say anything about him.’

‘If you would do anything for me, then please let me take him to the hospital.’

‘If I let you go now, we couldn’t be friends any more.’ He licked his lips. ‘But there is something I’ll do for you.’

His small eyes glinted behind the lenses. Her heart began to clatter in her chest. Whatever it was he was going to say, she didn’t want to hear it.

‘I’ll kill Becky for you.’ He reached for the knife. ‘I’ll do it right now, if you want.’

‘Why…’ She found it difficult to breathe. ‘Why would you do that?’

‘Because she’s not your friend, not really. She lied to you about that party, and if she lied about that, she’s lied to you about other things. She doesn’t know how to love like us, Karin.’

Karin knew he would do it in a heartbeat. He’d go downstairs and kill Becky. All Karin had to do was say… yes.

‘Please…’ she said, and his eyes flashed in hope. ‘Please, don’t.’

‘Why not?’

‘Because… I don’t want you to.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Yes.’

His head twitched. ‘I think you want me to do it.’