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sad about your sister,’ said Pen. ‘Don’t be. She’s not your sister. She didn’t even know you before you had your accident. But I think you guessed that, didn’t you? This is all a set-up. You, her, the guy who’s meant to be nursing you. You’re being kept here, like you’re in storage. Do you want to know why? Because I can tell you if you do.’
    I took a deep breath. The man’s grip was strong, and my head was throbbing like hell, but I was as alert now as I could ever remember. ‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I do.’
    ‘Good. You cooperate with us and I’ll tell you everything. But I’m going to be completely honest with you here, Matt, because it’s easier that way. Tonight’s the last night of your life. There’s nothing we can do about that. You know too much.’
    Which was an irony if ever I’d heard one. ‘I don’t know anything,’ I told her, trying, with not much in the way of success, to sound as calm as possible. ‘I can’t remember a damn thing about my life before here. You know about my accident, so you should know that.’
    ‘I know all about you, Matt. Jane and I have been having a long chat. She didn’t want to talk at first. Understandably, her first loyalty’s to her employer.’
    ‘Who’s her employer? I need to know as much as I can. That way maybe I can help you.’
    ‘But she talked in the end,’ Pen continued, ignoring my question completely. ‘Because everyone does. We’ve all got a threshold, beyond which we simply give in. You’re going to give in tonight, Matt. You’re going to tell us everything you know – because I suspect you know a lot more than you’re letting on.’
    I started to tell her I was happy to give in straight away but a huge hand was clamped over my mouth.
    She put a finger to her lips. ‘Shh. I’m going to make you an offer, Matt. Answer my questions quickly and honestly, and it’ll all be over in the blink of an eye. All the confusion and pain of this life will disappear, and you can finally sleep.’
    Her words took on a hypnotic quality and for a moment I could relate to what she was saying. An end to this continuous living nightmare. Sleep.
    But no. I still had too many questions.
    ‘Or you can die choking and bleeding, covered in snot, begging for the agony to stop. Like this.’ She grabbed Jane’s head by her hair and lifted it up, while the big guy yanked my head round so I had to look.
    But it wasn’t Jane I was looking at. It was a torn bloody doll. I wanted to throw up when I saw what they’d done to her eye. And suddenly I was absolutely terrified.
    She lifted her phone and pointed it at my face, and I realized she was filming me. ‘So, question one,’ she said. ‘And the most important one of all. Where are the bodies?’
    I swallowed, fear pulsing through me in intense, crippling waves. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I really don’t. Whose bodies?’
    She smiled, but she didn’t look so pretty now. There was a cruelty in the way her lips curled up at the ends. ‘I think you know whose bodies we’re talking about. You might have been able to fool these people’ – she gestured in the direction of Tom’s and Jane’s corpses – ‘but I’m a very different proposition.’
    ‘I’m telling you the truth, I swear it. I remember absolutely nothing before the accident.’
    Except now I did remember something.
    Something I didn’t want to admit to anyone.
    Pen shrugged. ‘We’ll soon find out.’ She put the gun down on one of the chairs and picked up a small, very sharp knife that looked like it would have no trouble removing a finger. Or an eye. She went over to Jane, slashed the tape binding her to the chair in one swift, savage movement, then yanked her out of the chair and dropped her to the floor as if she was nothing more than a bag of rubbish. She turned to me. ‘Your turn.’
    I felt my heart lurch in my chest. It was hard to believe that this was happening to me. That I was about to be