‘He said they were my dad’s. He said my dad killed his girlfriend.’ Jasmine could feel her breath shortening as she spoke. Was this really happening? Those photographs though, someone did that to those women and Jasmine was faced with two possibilities. One, that Tim killed them and was covering his tracks because she had found him out. Could she really let him go without calling the police if she truly believed that to be the case? The main issue with this theory was that he could have killed her too, at any time. Two, that Tim was telling the truth and her father, Frank, had murdered those women. Should she confront her father? Would he even admit it to her if it was true? And what if he did? What if it was true? Should she beg him to stop? She didn’t know what to do. She looked at Felicity, whose mouth was still open.

‘That’s mad. Are you being serious? What are you talking about? Is Tim off his head or what?’

‘I don’t know what to do. I should be scared of him, I am scared of him. But I don’t know, I can’t help thinking about it. What if he isn’t lying?’

‘You’ve got to tell your parents.’

‘What if he’s right?’

‘That’s insane,’ Felicity scoffed. ‘He’s not right. He’s some kind of con artist or something. Who are all the girls your dad is supposed to have killed?’

‘You know how every year we go away to help somewhere? According to Tim it was all a lie. My father was just trying to get access to young women no one would look for. The countries we went to were already overloaded with violence, so who would miss a girl or two? We heard stories like that all the time. If you picked the right girl they just didn’t seem to look for them. If some other girl with no family was targeted instead of Rosa, then Tim wouldn’t even have been looking, no one would.’

‘If he’s even telling the truth …’ Felicity shook her head. ‘Your dad wouldn’t do anything like that. No way. You have to call the police and get Tim out of your house.’

‘I don’t want to call the police and I don’t want to tell my parents. What if the police believe Tim? He is such a good liar.’

‘What are you going to do then?’

‘I don’t know. What would you do?’

‘We should tell my mum. She knows how to deal with scumbags.’

‘You don’t even like your mum.’

‘Dan’s gone now so she’s pretty straight at the moment. Honestly, she has dealt with more than her fair share of liars and manipulators; she always comes out the other side. He’s probably just a chancer. Trust me, she’ll know what to do.’