‘I need a knife,’ I say, holding my voice steady. ‘You owe me that. Don’t leave me down here in the dark to die of thirst. I’m not Houdini,’ I add, shaking the handcuff against the pipe. ‘I can’t pick the lock or cut through metal this thick. But if you give me a knife, I can make sure the end is quick.’

She cocks her head to one side. ‘I don’t want you to waste time shouting for help,’ she says. ‘No one will hear you. I’m going to take your car and phone back to the woods near Alexander Manor. Tom won’t ever know exactly what happened to you, but he’ll assume you decided to take care of Peter and then yourself. We all know the path your son was on, so he won’t be that surprised. In fact,’ she adds, suddenly darting forward and holding a screen in front of my face, ‘let’s unlock your phone and have you text him yourself.’

She’s out of reach again before I have a chance to react. Her thumbs speed across the screen as she texts my final message to my husband.

She turns to go, and then abruptly stops, bends down, and skitters something across the floor towards me. ‘It’s a Stanley knife,’ she says. ‘It’s not particularly sharp, but it’ll be enough for what you need.’

She shuts the door to the root cellar behind her. I listen to her footsteps as she walks up the stairs. Even though I’m expecting it, a bolt of terror shivers through me when I hear the hall door overhead shut behind her. No one knows we’re down here. No one even knows this cellar exists. I could shout for a week and no one would ever hear me.

But Stacey has left the light on.

And she’s left me a knife.

chapter 63

millie

Stacey has left me with a stark choice: wait in vain for rescue, and die from dehydration within a few days – if I’m lucky.

Or I can use the knife.

The human body is about sixty percent water, and, under normal conditions, an average person loses about a litre of water each day by sweating and breathing, and another one to two litres by urinating. If it’s not replaced, cells throughout the body will shrink as water moves out of them and into the bloodstream, part of the body’s efforts to keep the organs perfused in fluid. All the cells will shrink, but the ones that count are the brain cells. As the brain becomes smaller, it takes up less room in the skull and blood vessels connecting it to the inside of the cranium can pull away and rupture.