Bee walked down towards the end of the cottage, to where Mary Kate’s bed stood against the wall. She turned back to the men. ‘Bob, do you think there’s a funny smell down here?’

He followed her and sniffed the air. ‘There is,’ he said. ‘Like antiseptic, although not as strong.’

Bee bent over the bed and pressed her hands on the rumpled bed sheets, allowing her weight to sink into the mattress as it creaked and groaned beneath her. The blanket was in a tangle and the pillow had disappeared. She took a deep breath and in a choked voice said, ‘Even Mary Kate wouldn’t leave her bed unmade like this for the whole day.’

Still sniffing the air, Captain Bob dropped to his knees and looked under the bed. He pulled out the discarded pillow and sniffed that too. ‘My guess is Mary Kate was taken from here.’

*

She had fallen asleep almost as if instructed, after Jay had given her her last drink of water, pulled her to her feet and taken her to the corner of the cave to relieve herself. Her abdomen had been distended and the pain had kept her awake for hours.

‘Turn away while she goes,’ she heard her granddaddy say from the other part of the cave.

‘I’m not an animal,’ Jay had replied. And then, in a lower voice, to her, ‘You can’t get away, so don’t try. I’ll move meself over a bit – you go just there.’ He stepped back and was swallowed by the dark in an instant.

It hurt her to urinate and she felt faint from the effort. She tried to see but could only make out the uneven wall against which she pressed her hand to balance herself, and the dark sandy floor.

He took her arm to guide her back. ‘None of us will be in here for much longer,’ he said. ‘Drink this.’

She held the cup to her lips and drank the water he held out to her.

‘Now sleep, until it’s time,’ he said, and added, ‘I will be, with a bit of help from this.’ The whiskey bottle appeared before her face. ‘Want some?’ he mocked.

She shook her head and he laughed as he pushed her back onto the floor.

‘We’re going to be on the run for a few days and I need me sleep. I’m tying her hands back up,’ he said.

Without him even asking, she extended her hands in front of her, pushing her wrists outwards to give herself some room. It worked. He was too impatient to notice. She could sense a new agitation in his voice and was glad when he moved away from her. She listened to his every movement; he was seven steps further into the cave before she heard him flop onto the floor.

‘Here, drink this,’ he said, she assumed to the grandfather she had only seen and heard in the darkness of the cave, but there was no reply.