Jasmine started to jot down the details of the night as she remembered them. Everything except seeing Tim at the fair before he came to rescue her by the beach. She had asked him not to tell her parents, and he hadn’t, so she would keep his part in her story to a minimum. The police probably wouldn’t care anyway so there was no need to drop him in it. He had respected her wishes and treated her as though she were old enough to make her own decisions and mistakes, and she didn’t get a lot of that in this house. It was nice to finally have someone she could trust. It was nice to finally have an ally.

Chapter Nineteen

Overwhelmed by the events of the last few days, Jasmine had taken to her room to read a book. She needed a little escapism knowing what was coming since she had told her parents about bumping into Mr Morrell again. She had already spoken to the police but it wasn’t over yet, not if last time was anything to go by. A gentle knock at the door disturbed her. She was annoyed before she even knew who it was or what they wanted. She just wanted to be alone.

‘What is it?’ she asked, sensing someone hovering on the other side of the bedroom door. She had no idea why someone would be up this early in the morning, let alone want to talk to her.

‘It’s Mum, would you come downstairs, please?’

‘Have I got time to shower first?’ she asked hopefully. The hair at the base of her scalp was wet, so were the wisps that usually tendrilled around her ears. Today they were sticking to her cheeks.

‘If you must, but be quick,’ her mother said, and Jasmine heard her walk away and down the stairs.

She had spent almost all day yesterday giving her statement to the police, as they questioned her over and over about who and what she’d seen at the fairground. They’d tried to poke holes in her story, as if she had any reason to lie to them. They’d also asked her lots of questions about Jason Evans, about what kind of person he was, and about Hannah Torrence – if she saw Mr Morrell talking to her at any point. The officers weren’t familiar with Jasmine’s case against Mr Morrell but when they discovered what had happened, their focus shifted and they became much more interested in him and why he was hanging around the fair. Maybe after Jasmine had rebuffed him he had gone after Hannah.