They moved cautiously up the stairs then stopped at the closed door. Jason looked at Dani. She nodded and held up the cutters. Jason pulled on the handle and crashed open the door.

They barrelled out into the night. But everything was dark and quiet.

Jason stepped forwards past her.

‘Mary, no!’ Dani heard a man call out. Steven Grant?

There was a crackle of static and Jason collapsed to the ground.

Dani spun around, saw the dark object coming towards her chest and dodged it, rolling down onto the ground. She sprang back up, arced the cutters behind her and swung forwards ferociously. The contact was solid and sent a jolt up her arm and into her neck.

There was a thud as the figure collapsed to the ground. Dani didn’t let up. She lifted the cutters above her head, swung down and crashed the metal onto the fallen figure. There was a sickly crack and squelch as the metal smashed into the target.

‘No, Dani, stop!’

Dani spun around again, to where the voice had come from.

‘Whoa, whoa, Dani.’

She paused. It was Steven Grant. He held his empty hands up in the air. His face was panicked.

‘It’s ok, Dani. It’s me. I’m here to help you.’

Dani said nothing, just held the cutters aloft, ready to strike again. Grant held out a hand to Dani, but she wasn’t buying his good samaritan act. She edged backwards, moving closer to where Jason was groaning on the floor. She looked across at the figure she’d felled. It was hard to see clearly in the darkness, but she was sure it was Mary. Whether she was alive or not, Dani had no clue.

‘You stay away from me,’ she said to Grant.

‘Dani? Come on, it’s me. I’m not going to hurt you.’

‘No. You leave that to your bitch of a wife and your low-life son.’

Even in the darkness, Dani saw the twitch on Grant’s face. A chink in his accommodating facade?

‘I came here to stop her. To stop them both. You have to believe me. This isn’t what I want.’

‘How did you even know we were here?’ Dani asked. A wave of revulsion washed through her. She’d sat as a guest in his home just days before. Had he known then what Mary was planning?

‘Ethan told me!’ Grant said. ‘Seriously, Dani, you have to believe me. Why else would I turn up like this? What do you think Mary and I were doing just now? She didn’t know I was coming. We were arguing. I was telling her she had to stop. She had to turn herself in!’

‘But did you know!’ Dani screamed, so hard it made her lungs burn. ‘How many other people has she killed?’

Grant didn’t have an answer for that.

‘And Ethan?’ Dani said. ‘Nature versus nurture, right?’