I raise it above my head.

I can do this.

Archie is all I can think of as I kick the door open, pelting to the room as fast as I can.

The element of surprise.

But it is me who is surprised.

Chapter Fifty-Eight

Carly

Now

Leah’s at Norwood.

Norwood.

Carly thrusts her phone into her pocket and begins to run.

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Leah

Now

Archie isn’t here.

Nobody is here.

That’s not strictly true. There are the ghosts of the young Sinclair Sisters who once sang and danced and tried not to be broken by all that happened in this room.

It looks the same and yet different. The piles of rubbish have been cleared but it still stinks here. The bars that once striped the windows have gone. Probably taken as crime memorabilia. After our book came out, Carly saw the blanket we had supposedly been given by Doc for sale on eBay. Whether it was the actual one or not was impossible to tell.

The grubby mattress we had lain upon is also missing. It makes my skin crawl to think that somebody might lie on it and get a kick out of imagining three small, terrified girls, huddled together, fearing for their lives. Morbid fascination for the macabre is something I’ll never get to grips with. I turn and my heart stutters at the face I have never forgotten.

The shock of orange hair and bright red nose. The red mouth slashed into a grin. The graffiti clown laughs.

You’re back! he seems to say.

Fuck you, I reply.

There’s a creak.

The door begins to close.

Chapter Sixty

George

Now

George passes his mobile from palm to palm, as though it is as hot as the shame that burns inside him. Leah’s text still unopened.

What has he done?

Chapter Sixty-One

Carly

Now

Norwood looms larger than in her nightmares. Carly can’t believe she’s here but she’ll do anything for Archie. He really is the light of her life.

Will you ever go back? a reporter had asked her once.

Only in my nightmares, she’d replied but here she is, wide awake and utterly terrified.

A shadow. A movement.

‘Leah?’ she whispers. Scared to shout. Scared to move. Scared about what’s going to happen next.

Chapter Sixty-Two

Leah

Now

I push open the door that had begun to close in the breeze and step into the hallway. Outside, the staircase is patchy and rotten. The bannisters dangle precariously from their fixings. When we had escaped the room before we didn’t go upstairs, so I almost dismiss the idea, but what-ifs gnaw at me.

Archie could be up there?

Distributing my weight evenly, I begin to crawl up to the second floor, avoiding the holes. All the while holding my breath, as though that will somehow make me lighter.

I’m almost at the top when there’s a crack, a shift. I plummet to the ground.

Rockets of pain shoot through my spine. My lungs struggle for air. I roll onto my side, waiting for the dizziness to subside. I think of Carly’s tattoo. A comma, not a full stop. This isn’t over. I push myself to my feet. The muscles in my lower back spasm as I move, slower than I’d like but I can’t give up. I won’t.