‘I still can’t believe Hugh was a best-selling author,’ Faith says, her tone chatty. ‘I’ve read all his books. Though I didn’t realise at the time who he was. Ironic now I think about it.’

‘The police will be here soon.’ Alice’s voice is weak.

‘Oh dear, you still believe that?’ Faith leans forward, runs her finger over Alice’s lips. ‘I didn’t call them. It was just pretend. I’m good at pretending.’

‘Let me go, Faith, please.’ Alice hears the slight slur in her voice, notices the gradual heaviness of her limbs.

‘No!’ Faith cries. ‘You must stay. Eat more cake.’ She rests the knife blade against Alice’s cheek. ‘Well go on, eat up.’

Alice nibbles at the sponge, knowing it’s laced with something toxic – poison hemlock?

Faith moves the blade, turns to look at the barred window, and Alice takes advantage of her distraction, crushes the remaining cake in her fist, feeling it reduce in size, stodgy in her fingers.

‘Mum thought she’d found you and Hugh once, in Devon. You must have been seven – eight, perhaps.’ Faith shrugs, eyes back on Alice. ‘Then you vanished. Mother cried for weeks after that.’

‘I saw her,’ Alice whispers. Why had her father said she imagined it? But she knows the answer to that before the question barely enters her head: she could never know about his past. She takes a gulp of air. ‘Why didn’t you just tell me who you really are?’

Faith makes a weird puffing sound. ‘You would never have come back here, stayed with me forever.’

Alice sways, her head swimming, her mouth dry. She hasn’t eaten much of the cake. I can fight this. I can fight this.

‘Though I planned all of this long before I found you. You’re just the icing on the cake, as it were. When mother left the house and money to me, it was in dire need of repair,’ she says. ‘I decided to do the old place up. Make it the perfect setting to hold a last supper, as it were. Revenge is the best medicine, Rosie. It’s rewarding. Uplifting. Perfect.’

‘But why Lori and Gabriela? Please tell me you haven’t killed Gabriela,’ Alice says, thinking of the girl who looked so lost – afraid. ‘She’s just a girl – an innocent girl.’

Faith shrugs. ‘To be fair, Gabriela shouldn’t be here at all. Bloody Christine took her on. She has nothing to do with any of this. Of course I will have to kill her. I can’t have any loose ends. She and Lori are somewhere on the island, and I will find them before the tide goes out.’ She laughs, rubs a finger across her chin.

She’s deranged. How hadn’t Alice seen it? She needs to keep her talking.

‘But why Lori?’