Thank God. I know I shouldn’t want Jared to be caught up in Darcy’s plan, but now he’s here, my stomach isn’t churning quite as much. I’m convinced we’ll have a better chance of getting out of this together. Darcy has feelings for him, I’m sure of it. She won’t let him die, and Jared won’t let her kill me.

Darcy paces the floor, a frown on her face.

I gaze at my husband, his eyes closed, his head drooping over his chest, hair falling over his forehead. Suddenly, his eyes fly open. He snaps his head up. Unfortunately, he’s already been secured to the chair, his hands tied behind his back. ‘What the…’ He moves his shoulders and jerks his body, trying to figure out what’s going on. I can’t even warn him about what’s happened as I still have this stupid gag over my mouth.

Jared glares at Darcy who’s standing in front of the wine rack. And then his gaze lands on me, tied up and gagged beside him. His eyes widen further. ‘Lou! What the hell’s going on? Darcy? Why am I—’

Darcy holds up her hand to halt his questions but he ignores her.

‘Will somebody explain what the fuck my wife and I are doing tied up in here. And did someone just hit me on the head?’ He blinks and swings his head from left to right, catching sight of Callum who walks over to Darcy’s side. ‘Who the fuck are you?’ Jared asks.

‘It’s unfortunate,’ Darcy replies. ‘You were meant to get back in your car and leave. If you’d done what you were supposed to, you wouldn’t be down here now.’

‘What?’ Jared sounds woozy. ‘Where are we?’

‘Mike’s wine cellar,’ she replies.

‘In your house? In the basement?’ His voice is clearer now. He blinks and glances wildly around.

‘Correct,’ she says.

‘I don’t know what you’re playing at,’ he growls, ‘but you better untie us right now. Are you insane?’

I want to shout yes she fucking is insane and if you’d listened to me in the first place this wouldn’t be happening.

He turns to look at me, fear and concern clouding his eyes. ‘Louisa, are you hurt? I was calling you. I heard your ringtone.’ He turns back to Darcy. ‘Take that gag off her mouth! Why do you have my wife down here? My head hurts like a bastard. What the hell is going on?’

‘If you could be quiet for a minute,’ Darcy says icily, ‘I’ll tell you.’

Jared’s face darkens and twists, his eyes are narrow slits. I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so angry.

‘Your wife here was about to commit suicide,’ Darcy says.

‘What!’

‘But then you got all nosey and angry, so now it looks like she’ll be taking you and Joe with her. She’ll be driving off a cliff into a quarry tonight and you’ll all be going along for the ride.’

‘What the actual fuck are you talking about?’ Jared shouts.

‘You were supposed to leave,’ Darcy yells back, her composure ruffled. She takes a breath through gritted teeth and lowers her voice. ‘But you didn’t. So now I’m going to have to kill you. Or, more accurately, Callum here is going to kill you. And, to make it look authentic, I’m afraid Joe is going to be part of this family trip to the quarry.’

Jared is shaking his head. I’m starting to hyperventilate. Surely she’s not going to include Joe in her psychotic plan. Not my baby boy. I try to yell, try to break free, but it’s hopeless.

‘I don’t believe this,’ Jared murmurs. ‘Louisa was right about you all along. You’re mad! You’ve been targeting her, playing us all. Why didn’t I see it before?’

‘Because I didn’t want you to see it,’ she replies.

‘Why?’ he asks. ‘Why did you do it?’

‘Oh, I’m not going into all that again,’ she says. ‘I’ve already explained it once this evening. Callum, shut him up. Gag him or something.’

Callum starts to protest. ‘I haven’t got anything to—’

‘Use his frigging scarf or something.’ She puts a hand to her forehead as Callum quickly does as she asks.

Jared turns to look at me, a mixture of emotions in his eyes – anger, fear… an apology.

‘What did you mean?’ Callum asks, straightening up and turning to face his sister. ‘You said I have to kill them.’

‘Isn’t it obvious?’ she says. ‘You’re going to kill them all.’

‘No. Not the little boy,’ he says.

‘It will be better,’ she explains, ‘cleaner. More believable. And it will ruin her reputation even further if it looks like she’s killed her husband and son along with herself. No one forgives that sort of behaviour.’

‘I… I can’t, Nic. You’re the one who does the killing. I can’t do it. I always do the other stuff. I’m good at the other stuff.’

‘You have to man up, Callum,’ she says, her accent slipping. ‘Yes, it’s always me who does it. Now it’s your turn. I have too many other things to organise – planting Mike’s murder weapon, leaving the suicide note. Tying up all the loose ends. All you have to do is put on a pair of gloves, knock them out, put the car in first gear and send them off the edge of the cliff. Easy. Jared and Joe will be tied up anyway because she’ll be killing them against their will.’

‘No, I can’t.’

‘What do you mean, “no”?’ she spits. ‘Don’t tell me “no”!’

‘These are nice people. They’re not nasty. They never did anything bad to us. Not really. Especially not the little boy.’

Darcy shoves his chest with the heel of her hand. ‘You’re so pathetic,’ she sneers. ‘Always snivelling and moaning. I don’t want to do it, Nic. Do we have to, Nic? You’re weak. You’ve always been weak and stupid.’

‘And you’ve always been a bully,’ he replies softly. ‘Just like Mum.’

‘I’m nothing like Mum!’ she cries. ‘You take that back!’

‘No. Because it’s true.’

‘You ungrateful little shit.’ Darcy raises her fist like she’s going to punch him. She’s obviously not used to her brother talking back like this.

‘You always make me do things I don’t want to do,’ he says. ‘And I always do them. I never say no. But not this time.’ Callum takes something out of his coat pocket and holds it out in front of her. It’s a black and silver Swiss army knife. He flicks open the blade.

Darcy laughs and lowers her fist. ‘What are you going to do with that, Cal? Pick your nose with it?’

He ignores her and walks over to Jared.

‘Don’t kill him now, stupid!’ Darcy cries. ‘We have to do this properly. Like I planned. Or we’ll get caught.’

My heart is in my throat. Surely he won’t kill Jared, not after everything he just said to his sister. Jared glances across at me, eyes wide, and I try to convey love and forgiveness in my gaze. Callum moves behind Jared, crouches down and slices through the zip ties around his wrists, placing the penknife in Jared’s hand and coming around, back towards his sister.

Darcy now realises what Callum’s just done. ‘No-o-o!’ She launches herself at her brother, kicking him and clawing at his face. He grabs her in a bear hug, trying to restrain her. But she’s mad as hell, swearing and lashing out at him with everything she’s got.

Jared has managed to slice through the ties on his ankles, and he’s pulled the scarf down, off his mouth and around his neck. Now, he’s up off the chair and turning his attention to me, cutting through my wrist ties and sawing at the gag, working it free. I’m shaking with relief but I can’t take my eyes off Darcy and her brother.

Her thumbs are pressed down into Callum’s eye sockets. He’s howling in pain and frustration, pulling at her arms, trying to shake her off. Callum is big. He’s strong. But Darcy is fuelled by bitterness and rage. Her strength is in her fury. Callum wrenches one of her hands off his face, blood dripping from his eyes. But she gets it free again, makes a fist and punches him in the throat. He wheezes and coughs. Darcy blindly reaches behind. Her hand snakes across the table top, feeling around for the knife which lies just within her grasp. I can’t let her get to it, but Jared hasn’t cut through my ankle ties yet.

‘Jared!’ I croak. ‘The knife! Get the knife!’

He turns to see Darcy groping on the table for it while trying to fend off her brother who now has her by the throat.

‘Go!’ I urge.

Jared leaves me with one leg still bound to the chair. But he’s too late. Darcy’s fingers close around the knife handle. She brings it around and plunges it deep into Callum’s chest. Her brother stops howling and releases his hands from around his sister’s neck. He drops to his knees and stares in disbelief at Darcy who wears a look of exhausted triumph.

With the knife still protruding from his chest, Callum falls forward, crashing to the ground with a sickening thud, rivulets of blood streaming and pooling across the white marble floor. Silence falls upon the room for a brief moment. And then a wail starts up from within Darcy’s chest.

‘Now look what you made me do!’ she screams. ‘Cal!’ she yells. ‘You stupid idiot! You’ve ruined everything!’ She kicks his lifeless body and crouches down to try to get to the knife out from beneath his hulking body. But before she can get to it, Jared drags her away, standing between her and Callum’s body. He holds the penknife out in front of him as Darcy whips around to face him.

‘You haven’t got the balls to do anything with that,’ she says.

‘Stay where you are,’ Jared says. With his free hand, he reaches into his jacket pocket and takes out his phone, tossing it over to me. ‘Lou, call the police.’

Somehow, I catch the phone without dropping it.

‘I’m not going to prison for this,’ Darcy says, still eyeing the penknife. ‘When the police arrive I’ll tell them you killed my brother. I’ll tell them—’

‘It’s over, Darcy,’ I say, shaking my head. ‘After everything you told me tonight, you’ve got no lies big enough to cover what you’ve done.’

She stares from Jared’s knife to the phone in my hand. I can see her weighing up her options.

I punch in the numbers 999, but nothing happens. ‘I can’t get a signal!’ I cry.

Jared turns toward me and in that split second as he looks away from Darcy, she shoulder charges past him, knocking him sideways and sprints up the stairs.

‘Go after her!’ I yell. ‘She can’t get away!’

Jared nods, uses the penknife to slice through the last zip tie on my ankle, and gives chase, taking the cellar steps three at a time.

I lurch out of the chair, ignoring the bolts of pain shooting through my cramped limbs, and follow him out of the basement. I need to get a signal and call the police. I shouldn’t have sent Jared after her. He can’t confront Darcy alone. If she can kill someone as strong as her brother, she’ll have no difficulty hurting my husband.

Once I reach the top of the cellar steps, the bars appear on Jared’s phone screen. Signal! I press 999 again as I hobble out of the utility room and into the kitchen. The bifold doors are open, the freezing night air creeping into the Lane’s mansion. But no amount of fresh air will ever cleanse the stench of horror from this house.

‘Hello, emergency services, which service do you require? Fire, police, or ambulance.’

‘Police,’ I say. ‘And ambulance. Please hurry.’

‘Connecting you now.’

I make out the shape of my husband. He’s running towards the open gate at the bottom of Darcy’s garden, exterior lights illuminating his dark-suited shape. There’s no sign of Darcy. She must already be on the beach, trying to make her escape.

‘Hello, where are you calling from?’ It’s the operator.

‘Sandbanks,’ I gasp as I jog across the decking. ‘Please come quickly.’ I give them my name and Darcy’s address. Now, I’m running across the icy grass again. At least this time I’m giving chase rather than the other way around.

‘Please, please get here as soon as you can.’ I reach the open gate and limp through it onto the beach, glancing wildly from left to right, trying to see if I can spot them.

‘What’s the nature of the emergency?’ the operator asks, calm in the face of my panic.

‘Darcy Lane took my son, kidnapped me and my husband, and then she stabbed her brother,’ I cry. ‘I think he’s dead. And now she’s run off onto Sandbanks Beach. My husband is chasing her. I’m scared for him. She’s dangerous. You need to find my son – the maid took him to the cinema – I don’t know which one. Please find him. Please.’

The woman tells me to calm down, assuring me the emergency services will do everything they can to locate my son. Asking more questions. Reassuring me that they’ll be here within a few minutes. I just hope that’s soon enough.

There! To my left I see a figure running away from me along the shoreline. It’s a man. It’s Jared. I won’t be able to catch him up. My lungs are already burning and I’ve hardly moved any distance at all. Where could Darcy be? Anywhere, I guess. As I stagger after Jared, I throw panicked glances over my shoulder, paranoid that she’s doubled back and is coming after me. But the beach behind is empty.

Ahead, Jared has stopped. He’s looking around. I daren’t call out in case Darcy is lurking close by in the dunes, or somewhere in between the other beach houses. She could be watching me right now. I give an inward shiver as I finally draw closer to my husband.

‘Did you see which way she went?’ I pant.

‘No.’

‘Did she definitely come out the back way?’

‘I saw the kitchen doors were open,’ Jared says, ‘so I assumed she’d come out that way, but I guess she could just as easily have gone out the front.’

‘Shit,’ I say. ‘Shit.’ And then my whole body begins to shake. To shiver and tremble. I can’t tell if it’s because of the cold, or if it’s the shock.

Jared takes off his suit jacket and wraps it around my shoulders, pulling me into his body and holding me close. He kisses my hair and lets out a sob. ‘I’m so sorry, Lou,’ he says. ‘I’m really, truly sorry. I let you down badly. I don’t know how you’ll ever forgive me.’

I don’t reply. For now, it’s enough that we’re alive. Then, my ears pick up the distant wail of sirens.

‘What about Darcy?’ Jared asks, letting me go, but taking my freezing hands in his. ‘Shall we keep looking?’

‘Forget Darcy,’ I say, my teeth chattering. ‘The police will find her. Joe is more important. We need to get Joe. Right now. Make sure he’s okay.’

My voice is drowned out by the juddering, whirring sound of a helicopter passing over our heads. Jared and I run back towards the house as its searchlights sweep the beach.

I wonder if they will ever find her…