Maggie shivered and could smell bleach. The aroma stung her nostrils, and she cracked her eyes as other sensations of pain crowded in. The worst was in her arms. The light in the room was dazzling but, as she recoiled, it dimmed. She felt drunk and, as she stiffened, could feel the ache in both shoulder sockets intensify.

The dirty white tiled floor spun. She was hanging and gazed up at her wrists secured by rope and threaded through a metal loop in the ceiling. The light got bright again as she swung back around, and tried to squint at who was standing beside it.

‘Welcome to cold storage,’ Howie stated flatly.

Maggie’s legs felt numb as she tried to move them. She peered down to where the soles of her boots were against the floor and attempted to stand. She wobbled on them and tipped sideways. ‘What did you give me?’ she snarled into a glowing bulb and saw it was on a black stand and had four metallic flaps about it like a movie light.

‘Just a sedative to make you sleep while we set things up. But we want you wide awake to experience everything now.’

‘Untie me.’ She weakly stood erect and relieved the tension in her arms.

‘Who told you about this place?’

Maggie dizzily stumbled sideways and yelled as her arms took all her weight again. Beyond Howie, Maggie could see Holly. She was restrained like her, her head bowed, with the stocky guy standing in front of her. He wasn’t touching Holly just looking her over, as if sizing her up. Where was Lester?

Howie’s engrossed expression came into focus. He was studying the viewer of a camera that was positioned on a tripod. ‘We’ll livestream after we’ve had a little chat. Then we’ll be giving you injections to keep you awake.’

Behind Howie was a low table with a laptop on it. Next to him was a tubular metal surgeon’s trolley. There were implements arranged along it, but Maggie couldn’t make out what they were before her body pivoted away.

‘Lester has gone to slip into something more comfortable. He bagsed you. Think it’s that wound on your left knee. Bet he’s got a whole shit bunch of ideas about that. Lester can be very creative.’

Maggie gripped the rope and heaved herself upright.

‘Tell me how you came to know about this place.’ Howie sounded distracted.

Maggie turned on her heels. He was still entranced by the viewer. Now she could see what was on the trolley. Only a few of the implements were surgical. Next to the scalpels there was a nail gun, a mini blowtorch, a selection of hypodermics, some clear plastic bottles of liquid and a wire brush.

‘Just speak into the lens.’ Howie’s attention didn’t shift from the mini screen at the back of the camera.

‘We told you. Somebody has her child. They told us to come here. After we’d been to the kennels.’ She had to give him more.

Howie briefly met the gaze of the stocky guy.

Lying hadn’t worked. Could she delay whatever had been planned for them by telling him about Babysitter and the journey he’d sent them on? He was clearly a threat to Howie’s vile operation.

‘And?’

‘We met Connor.’ She wouldn’t say he was now in the hands of the police.

Howie sucked his bottom lip. ‘What happened?’

‘Untie us both. I’ll tell you everything.’

‘You don’t get to make any demands… Sorry…’ He shrugged his shoulders. ‘I don’t know your name.’

‘Let me down and I’ll tell you.’

‘But I need to call you something. You look like a Jenny. Never met a bad Jenny. I’ll call you that.’ He slightly lowered the camera on the tripod.

She felt panic rise. He seemed fixed on whatever he was going to do. ‘We saw the mill. We went inside.’ Maggie registered Holly slightly raise her head but the stocky guy was too busy concentrating on their conversation. She had to keep both men distracted. Howie would want to find out exactly how much more she knew.

His jaw muscle twitched. ‘If you’ve been to the mill then you’re familiar with exactly where you’re going to end up. Connor’s movies are a little more esoteric, but he services a significant demand. I prefer to deal with the living. What he does with you afterwards is between him and the clients who pay to watch him in action.’

Maggie felt repulsed but could tell Howie was still thinking about what she’d said. ‘I’ll give up the guy who told us. But you get us down. Now.’

Howie mock considered it. ‘Hmm… or, I could start with your friend over there. Take her clothes off and then peel her skin strip by strip. It’s a long process but we’ve got all sorts of time.’

Maggie watched the stocky guy turn back to Holly.

‘Hey, she’s back with us.’ He lifted her head by grabbing her hair and yanking it up.

‘Perfect timing.’ Howie met Maggie’s eye. ‘So what’s it to be? Watch her being done before you so you can see what’s going to happen, or fess up and die first?’

Maggie knew it wasn’t a threat to make her talk. He was going to kill them both.

The stocky guy plodded over to the laptop.

‘Lester, for fuck’s sake hurry it up!’ Howie yelled.

There was movement at the rear of the room.

At first Maggie thought Lester was naked. But as his figure entered the periphery of the light she could see he was wearing a transparent catsuit. It looked like it was made of thin yellow rubber. A zipped pocket at the front accommodated his genitalia. He kicked off his black flip-flops and twisted the object in his hand. He fumbled the pea green mask onto his shaved head. Only his eyes were visible through the slits, but small white dots delineated his concealed features.

‘Something new we’re fucking with. Haden here,’ Howie nodded at the stocky guy, ‘he can put one of our client’s faces where Lester’s is. So it looks like whatever Lester’s doing to you, they’re doing to you.’

The fact they were using their names so freely meant they never expected her to repeat them. Maggie’s eyes flitted from Lester to Howie to Haden.

‘And as I’ve just let my clients know we’ve got two in cold storage they’re all eager to do some truly fucked-up shit.’