Next, a new figure emerged as if from nowhere. He wore a crimson robe and a headdress with curled horns like those of a goat. The object he clutched in his left hand looked like some kind of ceremonial staff or sceptre. The thing in his right hand glittered in the firelight. It was a long-bladed dagger. He held it dramatically up in the air, facing the crowd across the water, then turned and took a step towards the woman, brandishing the blade.

Ben looked at Wolf. Words were hard to find. He just said, ‘They didn’t.’

Wolf replied simply, ‘They did.’

When the first cut appeared on the girl’s flesh and the blood began to flow, Ben felt sick and wanted to look away. But he kept watching, even as the horned man in the crimson robe slashed the girl’s throat wide open. Then, mercifully, the video footage dissolved into a flurry of movement and it was over.

Wolf said, ‘That’s when I couldn’t take it any more. I ran and kept running. I left my whole life behind at that moment, and I haven’t looked back.’

Chapter 17

Ben was still holding the phone, unable to say anything. Wolf held out his hand for it, and Ben gave the phone back to him. He was happy to return it. Wolf turned it off and dropped it back inside the zippered pouch on the holdall.

‘This is what you saw,’ he said.

Wolf nodded. ‘Now you know.’

‘You saw it with your own eyes.’ As if somehow Ben could find a way for this not to be true.

‘I told you it was bad, Ben. You should have listened to me.’

‘It’s not a fake.’

‘No, it’s not a fake,’ Wolf snapped irritably. ‘How could you fake something like that, except in a horror movie?’ Then he sighed. ‘Look. I understand what’s going through your mind. You don’t want to believe it, just like I didn’t want to believe it either. Because what you just saw isn’t normal. These people aren’t normal. They’re sick. They’re evil. And that’s coming from a guy who’s done some pretty horrible shit in his life. I thought I was an evil fucker. Thought I was the one who’d sold his soul. And then I saw what they did that night, and I realised that maybe there was still some hope for me, after all, because maybe there was still a tiny bit of good left inside this fucked-up heart of mine and I wasn’t beyond redemption. That’s when I knew I had to get out.’

‘Was it …’ Ben tried to formulate his words. ‘Was it a religious ceremony? Is that what we just watched?’