Stephan, her father, wasn’t as strong as Tiffany; he may have been her flesh and blood, but he was pathetic in comparison.

‘Oh God, no. Please! Don’t hurt her. You can kill us but spare her. She never hurt you or anyone!’

Zara began pacing the floor. ‘I must admit you have a clever little granddaughter . . . but she’s not intelligent enough to outsmart me. You see, Torvic, something disturbed me immensely when she was held at knifepoint. Oh yes, the attack was definitely the actions of this so-called Governor, and, for a moment, I thought it really was Eric. The thing is, though, while you made out a strong case for me to believe Eric was involved in all this shit, I could never believe in my heart that he’d really hurt a woman. And he certainly wouldn’t hold a knife to a young girl’s throat.’

Mike watched and was saddened to think that it had ever crossed Zara’s mind that his brother would do something as callous as that. As much as he was fed up with his brother’s antics, he still knew the man’s level, and hurting girls wasn’t in his blood. He was just relieved that Zara had come to her senses before it was too late: she could have cut more than Eric’s wrist.

Zara took another sip of coffee, before she continued. ‘So, I was puzzled by Tiffany’s detailed knowledge of the person she described. It was a bit like the TV programme Through The Keyhole. The clues were painstakingly obvious. It was almost as if she was handing me the evidence on a plate. But then I thought about things. If a man suddenly grabbed me in the street in the dark, with a knife at my throat, I wouldn’t be taking much notice of his aftershave, or the bandage on his wrist, or the gold ring on his little finger, would I? You see, Tiffany fucked up. She was so eager to give me such a detailed description, it was just too rehearsed. Imagine a young woman having a blade under her chin. Now would she even be able to look at the perpetrator’s wrist and their little finger? And would she honestly be able to tell you what type of aftershave the villain was using? You can’t kid a kidder as they say, and I’m afraid the girl chose the wrong person to try that stunt.’

‘Yeah, look, please, I did put her up to it. It was me, it was all me. She never hurt anyone. Please let her go. Kill me, but just let her go!’ Torvic begged.

Zara took one last sip of her coffee and placed the empty cup on the draining board.