It was so strange. Why hadn’t she known what was going on down there? Her bedroom faced the back garden. However, the answer to that was now blindingly obvious. The cabin was fitted with blackout curtains. And the door and window didn’t face the house. She didn’t know why she did it, but something made her go back and have another look around the cabin’s exterior. She walked past the door and the window until she was looking at the back fence. There, tucked behind the cabin, was a gate. She’d never seen it before though.

The eerie thoughts tumbled over themselves, and she wasted no time in running back to the house.

Out of breath and shaking, she rushed into Brooke’s bedroom with the suitcases to find her sister carefully placing her clothes in piles.

‘Brooke!’ The slight tremble in her voice made her sister spin around.

The sight of Poppy, her face paler than she’d ever seen in her life and her eyes looking nervously towards her, took her by surprise.

‘What’s the matter? You look strange. Are you sick?’

‘No, Brooke, I’m not. But I’ve seen stuff I’m not supposed to know about. We need to get out of here. Like now!’

‘What! Why? What on earth’s the matter?’

Poppy sat on the bed and placed her head in her hands. Brooke could see she was in a state, which was so unlike Poppy. She was the cold, stern one, much like Kendall.

‘Brooke, I think our father’s up to something. There was a piece of material sticking out of a trunk. You’ll never believe what it was. It was hessian.’

Brooke didn’t see the connection right away. ‘And?’

‘Hessian, Brooke. What’s he doing with fucking hessian? Seriously, think about it. Mother said the men were found with hessian bags over their heads. That Ricky guy, Kendall’s boyfriend, was beaten, with a sack over his head too.’

Brooke laid down the pile of T-shirts she had in her hand. ‘Poppy, don’t get carried away. You’re spooking me. Besides, hessian is used for loads of stuff, like putting inside the hanging baskets that Mother insists on.’

‘It’s not just that. You should see the cabin. It’s being used as an office, not as a shed, and I think it’s our father who is working in there. It’s all warm and cosy, not just a shed. There are even blackout curtains up at the window. And, Brooke, did you know we have a rear entrance into the garden? Did you ever see the gate in the back fence because I for one never knew it was there?’