And, even if they are, they sure as shit won’t be looking for us out here.

No. The first seventy-two hours that are so vital in a missing person case will tick past. Soon it’ll be too late. And when they find my body, the media will do what the media do and I’ll be famous for a few days if they can even tell it was me.

But if they can’t, if Thomas makes me unrecognisable, or harder to find, the French police won’t take DNA and if they do they won’t bother to match it to me. Because I will be diluted on that ever expanding list of people who disappeared this year.

My heart is beating loud in my ears and tears threaten to fall, but I won’t let them. I need to figure this out.

I have to get out of here.

A car door slams loudly. Footsteps.

Boots scraping over gravel. They get louder and louder as they approach. The floorboards squeak with his weight outside, then the door creaks open and all my cells recoil simultaneously.

But I know what I have to do.

‘Thomas?’ I try to say, but it comes out like a mew. I’m moving slowly, like I’m just waking up, looking over at him through confused eyes. His face is the colour of cement and he’s carrying my handbag over his shoulder. The video is in my bag. All the evidence I have. Nobody will see that video of him with Matilde if I die.

He stares at me and shuts the door. I look around, like it’s the first time I’m seeing things, and try to talk again.

I look down at my hands and fake-notice they’re tied up. I look up at him, eyes wide as I struggle to sit up.

My breath is quick now, just like it should be, given the situation. But I’m not freaking out quite as much as I might be if this were the first I knew of what he’d done. Of course, I could get out of this. I could hold my hands over my head and pull them down and break the tape, but then what? No, I’d best save that party trick for later. Make him think I’m helpless.

‘Thomas?’ I mew again from beneath the tape.

‘Harper, you need to stay calm,’ he says, in his polite way.

I nod. And he comes over to me, reaches for one corner of the tape and pulls it off my mouth.

‘What’s going on?’ I ask as he watches me. I need to humanise myself. Maybe I can negotiate with him.