Jasmine ate cereal in the kitchen with the radio on, as Tim worked on redecorating the pantry, a tiny room off the kitchen that was lined with the most offensive wallpaper Jasmine had ever seen. The skit on the radio was some awful schlocky prank call show where the presenter phoned a random local business and tried to get the owner to say a specific word without letting them in on the joke and, if they did, the show would give five hundred quid to charity. Today the word was ‘penetrate’. Jasmine cringed just listening to it. The segment finished and the news came on, with an appeal for a missing girl, last seen at the local bus depot a little after nine. Hannah Torrence.

Jasmine felt her stomach drop. She had been standing next to her just the day before, at the fair.

Tim came out of the pantry and looked around to check Jasmine’s parents weren’t there. ‘Did you tell them about last night yet?’

‘No.’

‘You hear that on the radio? A girl went missing. You have to tell them.’

‘I don’t think he would do anything like that. Maybe she just ran away,’ she said, unconvinced by her own words.

‘He wasn’t well, that man. He was dangerous. What would have happened if I hadn’t been there? That could have been you on the news,’ Tim said.

Tim was right. A strange mixture of relief and guilt washed over her. Had she led Mr Morrell on? Had she turned him into the person who grabbed hold of her? Did he come back down from the clifftop and take his anger out on someone else? On Hannah? She remembered how Tim had come out of nowhere and rescued her. He had been so protective.

‘My parents will never let me out of the house again if I tell them this. I’ll be grounded for ever, lo-jacked probably, and forced into some kind of home-schooling situation in a windowless room. You have no idea how they reacted last time. Everyone will hate me – they hated me last time, said it was my fault that he did what he did. He might not have anything to do with what happened last night and the police won’t look for anyone else if I just drop him in it – and how will Hannah’s family feel if they think he was coming after me instead?’