Eventually they came to a fork in the road.

Which way?

There wasn’t a tell-tale glow of lights from houses, or the blue flickering light from TV sets.

Left or right? Right or left?

There was so much at stake.

Before Carly could make up her mind she saw two spots of light in the distance.

‘No.’

She shook her head as though she could make them disappear but then she realized they were travelling too fast to be torchlights. They were headlights.

A car.

Lightning cracked.

Carly felt adrenaline course through her as she cast one last look around for the men, but they were nowhere to be seen. She staggered to her feet and stumbled into the middle of the road, waving her arms.

‘Help! Help!’

The rumble of thunder masked her thin cries. Leah and Marie joined Carly in the middle of the road, the air full of their desperate pleas.

‘Stop! Please!’

For a second the car seemed to accelerate before it stopped. Its hazard lights winked as it hugged the verge.

Carly shielded her eyes. She couldn’t see who was driving.

Both doors clicked open.

Were they safe now?

Chapter Forty

Leah

Now

Today is my first thought as the sun glaring through the curtains prises open my eyes. My head is fuzzy. There’s a bitter taste in my mouth, almost as though I have a hangover. It’s not alcohol causing bitterness to rise in my throat though, but the memory that last night I had almost chased an innocent man to his death.

I’d been so sure it was him but it was my Fregoli again deceiving me. I am no longer sure what I think. I no longer trust myself. My only hope is that everyone else is right. It’s some crackpot sending the letters and everything else is just in my imagination.

The teddy bear is a coincidence.

The cross, though? That can’t be as easily explained.

I roll over, stretching my legs out in the empty space George should be.

By the end of today this will all be over.

Until then I am not going out. Archie and I will snuggle up on the sofa and watch Peter Pan. The Incredibles. The Jungle Book.

We’ll be safe, I tell myself. Safe.

It is then Archie lets out a piercing scream.

Chapter Forty-One

Carly

Then

Two women were in the car that had stopped. Now, the sisters clung to each other on the back seat while the women asked them for their names. Carly couldn’t answer. Leah and Marie wouldn’t. Strangers were once just people they didn’t yet know, now they were to be feared.

‘Taken’ is all Carly could say.

‘Taken? What have you taken?’ The women exchanged a glance.

‘Taken.’ Carly began to cry.

‘My God.’ One of the women leaned towards Carly and placed a hand on her knee. Carly flinched from her touch. ‘Are you the Sinclair Sisters?’

‘The girls that were abducted?’ the other woman said. ‘You’ve been headlines in every single newspaper and on all the TV channels. Not just in the UK but worldwide.’