He shrugged. The question was offered more as a social observance than genuine inquiry, clearly, for the blood on his face was answer enough.

‘What do you think they’re going to do to us?’ Karen asked.

Tony dropped roughly to the ground next to her. ‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘Did they tell you who did it?’

Karen looked at him a moment, her expression unreadable. ‘No. Did they tell you?’

Tony shook his head, unable to meet her eye. ‘No. They said someone was seen, but that’s all. Where’s Kelly?’

‘I’ve not seen him. I was told to be here at 9.30.’

‘I was at 10.30. What time is it now?’

Karen glanced at her watch, angling it in the dim light. ‘Almost one,’ she said.

‘What did they ask you?’

Karen cleared her throat. ‘About you, mostly. And me.’

Tony felt his stomach churn again. They’d been asking about him. Did that mean they suspected him? But then, they had asked him mostly about her. Maybe they’d been bluffing when they said someone had seen. Maybe it had been to see if he would confess on the spot.

‘What did you tell them?’

‘The truth,’ Karen said. ‘We were going out and now, well, we’re not.’

‘I said the same thing,’ Tony said. ‘They wanted to know why we broke up.’

‘What did you say?’ Karen asked, suddenly apprehensive.

‘I said you cheated on me at that party.’

‘I didn’t know what I was doing,’ Karen said.

‘I’m not arguing with you. They asked me if I thought we could trust you. If I trusted you.’

There was a pause for a moment, before Karen spoke. ‘What did you tell them?’

‘I said that we could. That I did.’

‘Do you trust me? Completely?’

‘Yes,’ Tony said.

Karen took his hand in hers. ‘We’re going to be OK,’ she said. ‘I promise. Everything’s going to be OK.’

Tony wanted to tell her the truth, wanted to unburden himself. She knew already about Alice; they’d spoken about her before. He felt certain she would understand why he’d done what he did. But then a voice niggling at the back of his mind made him wonder if this, too, was part of the interrogation. Was Karen sent to get him to confess, all along? Was she working with them? He desperately wanted to trust her, to tell her everything, but couldn’t gather the nerve to do so.

In the end, their conversation was cut short by the grinding of the cellar door as it was pushed open. Duggan stood, alone at the top of the steps. He looked exhausted, his body slumped, his hands hanging uselessly by his sides.

‘It’s time to go,’ he said. ‘Come on.’

Tony struggled to his feet, put out his hand to help Karen to hers. ‘Where are we going?’ he asked.

‘To finish this,’ Duggan said.