A thought occurred to Jasmine that she could barely entertain. ‘What about Mum? Does she know?’

‘Your mother has nothing to do with this. If you were to tell her …’ He left the threat unspoken but Jasmine could see the fear on his face. For the first time he seemed to be displaying some actual emotion. So he did genuinely care about her mum. Then how could he do this to her? Oh God, her poor mother. Finding this out would destroy her.

‘I’ll get help, Jasmine, just don’t do anything stupid.’

‘You’re going to go and tell the police everything you did. Or I will.’

‘No. Your mother would go to prison, too. They won’t believe that she had nothing to do with it. You think the attention you got when that teacher kissed you was bad? Try having a serial killer for a father. They won’t leave you alone, not ever. But if you stay quiet, I’ll stop, I’ll get help.’

‘What about Tim? He won’t go away until you pay for what you did,’ she said, stalling, trying to keep him busy to distract him from realising that Felicity was still in the house.

‘I called him just now. All he wants is money. I transferred our savings into his bank account. He’s going to leave us alone. Everyone has a price, especially someone like Tim.’

Jasmine found it hard to believe that all Tim wanted was money. She heard footsteps on the stairs. Felicity was coming down. Jasmine looked at the knife block, wondering if she had enough time to get to one, wondering if she had enough courage to use it. She couldn’t let him hurt Felicity.

‘Flick,’ Jasmine muttered.

‘Keep her out of the kitchen. Keep her out or I’ll have no choice!’ Frank hissed and Jasmine knew what he meant.

Jasmine left the kitchen and grabbed Felicity just as she reached the bottom of the stairs, making sure she couldn’t go in the kitchen. She didn’t want Felicity to see her mother like that; she might well be dead.

‘Are you going to tell me what’s going on?’ she asked, trying to shake Jasmine off.

‘I will. But we need to get in the car.’

What would she tell Felicity? And what should Jasmine tell her mother? Could she really lie to her about this? There was too much for her to deal with. She just had to get through the next few moments, then she would worry about the moments that followed. Jasmine and Felicity rushed past the kitchen door and outside to her dad’s car. He must have seen them. They didn’t have much time.

Jasmine got into the driver’s seat. To her relief, the keys were still in the ignition, where her dad often left them.

‘What are you doing?’ Felicity asked, bewildered.

‘I don’t know, just get in.’