‘Excuse me?’ She gripped his hair and pulled his head back so she could look him in the face. She couldn’t believe she’d had the audacity to be attracted to him moments earlier. ‘First, how dare you?’ She pulled his face closer to hers, finding pain and uncertainty there. ‘Second, what possibly makes you think my sexuality is any of your business? And third, you think you can tell someone’s sexuality just by kissing them?’ She grabbed his beard now and wrenched his face even closer to hers. ‘I could be heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, pansexual – kissing me would tell you absolutely nothing.’

He groaned.

‘To think that I’ve been defending you . . .’

‘That’s what Madison is telling everyone.’ He held her wrist to keep her from pulling more of his beard out. ‘You and Cierra. I never believed it.’

Eliza didn’t let go of his beard. ‘Exactly what has she told you?’

‘She sent Carmen —’

‘What did she say?’

‘That you and Cierra have been sleeping together.’

Eliza looked down into his eyes. She didn’t move, didn’t say a word. Her hand slipped through his beard and fell to her side.

Of course.

When Madison had come into the room that night, all she’d seen was a scantily clad Cierra and Eliza in her dressing gown. Eliza had assumed Cierra would’ve explained the truth to her sister later, but in fact . . .

That night Cierra had called Eliza, afraid, because Tom had passed out in her bed. Eliza had pulled herself out of bed in a rush, driven across town, and climbed up the trellis to Cierra’s window. The two of them had managed to get the very drunk Tom to the window, where he had dropped down into the thick conifer hedge below. The crash had woken the Masons’ dog, Mr Bruiser, who had then brought Madison bursting into Cierra’s room. She drew the wrong conclusion, apparently.

Now she faced a choice . . . No, of course she had to come clean about Tom. But what would happen if she did that?

Tom gets blamed for the disappearance, even though he didn’t do it. The girls don’t get found.

Monica hates me. I lose my sister.

Wren hates me. Her dad loses everything.

I don’t care. I don’t care! I’m not taking the fall for him!

‘It isn’t true, is it?’ demanded Murphy, standing upright unsteadily, his hand hovering protectively over his groin. ‘I haven’t told the police. I don’t believe it. I told Carmen not to tell anyone, but who knows what Madison will do. This is all part of her publicity stunt, isn’t it?’

‘Carmen was going to tell the police?’

‘Yes.’

‘And you stopped her? Why?’

‘They’d crucify you,’ said Murphy, rubbing his chin beneath his beard. ‘They were going to kill me, imagine what they’d do to you.’