‘Help me up,’ Leon says, pushing on his haunches, fighting the pain, the dizziness. ‘Alice and Christine are in the house with Faith. We have to help them.’ Tears are close – pathetic helpless tears. He shouldn’t have left Alice. What had he been thinking with his heroic swim to the mainland? He tried so hard to do the right thing, but failed miserably. He has to make things right.

Lori rises, pulls Leon to his feet. ‘I’m with you,’ she says.

At a sudden noise behind them, he turns to see the shed door crashing open, banging hard against the wooden building.

‘Gabriela?’ Leon whispers, peering into the darkness, as the young woman in black heads towards them with determined strides.

Alice

‘Sit down, Alice.’ Faith points the knife towards the vacant spot at the tea party. ‘Now.’

Alice lowers herself to the floor, next to the puppets. She remembers. Her young life spent here. Here in this room. A tear rolls down her cheek, tastes salty on her lips, drips off her chin.

‘You of all people must understand the power of grief,’ Faith says, crouching down on her haunches in front of her. ‘Once I started reading my mother’s diaries, which were fascinating and heart-breaking in equal measure, I had to punish the people who ruined her life and mine. You can see that, right?’ She tilts her head, stares long and hard.

Alice remains silent. She’s a little girl again. Trapped. Afraid.

Faith drops down onto her bottom, dangles the knife between her legs. ‘I’m not going to lie; it was a shock to find out Hugh wasn’t my daddy.’

Alice looks up, stares into those vacant eyes.

‘Oh don’t look like that. Even I realise incest isn’t the done thing. But when Hugh left with you, I thought he was my father. Mother never told me otherwise. She just said she wasn’t my aunt, that she was my mother. What else was I supposed to think? But her diaries corrected that.’

Alice knows she has to keep her talking. ‘You pushed Christine down the stairs.’

‘That’s right. I wasn’t sure how Christine’s death would pan out. But it just sort of happened.’ Her lips curve into a cruel smile. ‘You fell asleep. If you hadn’t, Christine may still be with us. But once you were out for the count, it was easy to threaten Christine with a knife – tell her to get up – lead her out of the room. The woman almost pissed herself. Which is ironic really.’

Alice stares, waiting for Faith to continue.