‘I feel sick,’ Jasmine said, sitting back down, unsure how to carry on from there. The more she pretended that what he was saying was even remotely reasonable, the more seeds of doubt infiltrated her thoughts. He couldn’t be telling the truth. Could he? It all came back to that necklace. She knew her father had given it to her; the only question now was where he got it from. At some point before it belonged to Jasmine, it had belonged to Rosa. Was her father the only person who could have taken it from one and given it to the other?

‘All of these girls have families. Every single one of them deserves better than this.’ He thrust the photo of his fiancée in her face again. She didn’t want to look.

‘I’m not going to help you. Go now and I won’t tell anyone. If you’re not a bad person like you say, then you need to leave us alone,’ Jasmine implored, afraid to entertain his theory for a moment longer, afraid that she was starting to believe him.

‘Look at those pictures. Don’t they deserve justice?’

‘What you’re suggesting can’t be true. It just can’t.’

‘Just give me today at least. Please. I’ve been trying to identify these other women but I don’t even know where to start. Together we might have more luck.’

Why was he willing to let her go? If he had been the one who hurt those girls would he have wasted this time trying to convince her of anything? Surely it would have been quicker just to dispatch her.

‘I will give you an hour to get out. After that I’m calling the police.’

‘If you call the police, your dad will go to prison. Is that what you want? Prove me wrong if you can, just tell me where to look, tell me what to look for.’

‘Don’t you want him to go to prison?’ she asked.

‘I do but I need more evidence to make sure. Please just give me time to find some more.’

Jasmine thought about his proposition for a moment. She didn’t know why she was even considering doing what Tim wanted, but there was something in the back of her mind telling her she must get to the truth. She couldn’t live with the niggling doubt in her mind that Tim had put there. She believed that he believed what he was saying to her, but she wanted to prove him wrong.

‘I need some air,’ Jasmine said, her nausea getting stronger. She couldn’t look at those photos for another second.