She told Jake that Daddy was looking after him for an hour while Mummy popped to the shops. He started to cry to go with her, but she placated him with the promise of returning with some sweets. She thought about picking him up and running. Going to the police with Nathan’s clothes and telling them that she thought he’d killed someone. But how could she be sure they’d be kept safe? Nathan and Tommy were well-connected men. They had several police officers on their payroll, and who knew what they were capable of covering up between them? Then Nathan – or someone else – would kill her – and what would happen to Jake? No – she needed to protect Jake, and herself. And the only way to do that was to do what Nathan wanted, at least until she could figure out a way to escape him for good.

Grace left the flat and drove to the allotment, almost as if on autopilot. Uncle Billy was her Aunt Helen’s ex-husband. Grace had kept in touch with him sporadically over the years, but more recently, with no other friends or family to turn to, she’d contacted him again after Nathan had bumped into him in town one day.

Grace knew it was too early for Billy to be there yet. She and Jake visited the allotment occasionally. Jake loved it, playing in the dirt and planting potatoes. She saw a couple of faces that she recognized but she passed by relatively unnoticed. She set her bag down by the firepit which Billy used for warmth on the cold nights he liked to spend there. She had often wondered what he burned in there and thought then whether Nathan had ever used it for such a monstrous purpose before.

She emptied the bag’s contents into the pit, along with the bag, and set it alight using Billy’s matches and some old newspaper. She watched as it burned, making sure all of it was gone before she left. Seeing the picture of the round smiling face on the carrier bag melting in the flames, made her wonder whose face would never smile again; whose blood was on those clothes, and whose life she was helping to erase. When she had finished, she drove back home, remembering to stop at a sweet shop on the way.

The smell of burning would stay in her nostrils for days.

Chapter Fifty

Nathan scrubbed himself over and over in the shower, making sure that he removed every last trace of blood. It was everywhere, under every fingernail, in every crease of his skin. When he’d finished, he dressed and went into the living room to sit with Jake, who beamed at him as he entered the room.

‘What are you watching, son?’ Nathan asked him, tousling his hair.

‘Fireman Sam, Daddy,’ he replied happily, climbing onto Nathan’s knee as he sat down.