Jake parked outside the manor’s rusted gate and opened the boot of his vehicle, where he stored his service weapon in a safe. He quickly extracted and loaded the pistol and attached the holster to his belt. Going in weapon- drawn could provoke violence, but he needed to be prepared.

After a few deep breaths to steady his nerves, Jake slipped past the side of the front gate and prowled slowly up the edge of the overgrown gravel driveway. He stopped every few steps and cocked an ear. No sounds except the croak and chirp of birds in the vineyard.

Two vehicles were parked in front of the house’s main entrance. Damn it, Jake had been hoping for just the one.

He was certain he knew where his quarry was, but better safe than sorry. Jake checked every door and window on the ground floor one by one, moving as quietly as possible.

Satisfied the manor hadn’t been broken into, he edged his way around the two-metre-high hedge toward the back garden of the former girls’ home.

A faint whine reached Jake’s ears and caused the hairs on the back of his neck to stand up.

He padded to the side of the cottage and peeked through the window into the main room on the ground floor. He caught a glimpse of Aiden and Evelyn Kelly grappling on a sheet of plastic in the middle of the room, a bowl of strawberries and a pair of pliers on one corner of the sheet. Some old primary school chairs lay against the walls, but otherwise the room was empty.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit! He was too late.

Jake eased the pistol out of its holster. He could feel the palm of his hand grow slick with sweat against the cold metal of the weapon—fortunately he hadn’t had to use a gun in the field for years, although he’d kept up his range training.

Jake pushed against the front door of the cottage gently, edging it open fraction by fraction.

Kelly was forcing a strawberry against Evelyn’s face, smashing it against her teeth through the skin, juice dripping down her chin. ‘Just eat it.’

Her lips were clamped together as she struggled to pull her hair free from his grasp.

The hinge creaked. Kelly’s head whipped around. He dropped the strawberry and closed a second hand around Evelyn’s throat.

‘Hunter. What are you doing here?’

‘I assumed you’d need help,’ he said as he entered the room, pistol pointed at the floor.

For a millisecond hope flickered in Kelly’s eyes that Jake may have been offering himself as an accomplice, until the meaning of his words registered.

‘We’re at a bit of an impasse then, aren’t we?’ Kelly’s manner was almost jovial as he squeezed the life from his daughter. ‘What are we going to do?’