Like This, for Ever

though. Barney had seen the flash of hunger on his face.
    Lacey stopped and coughed. She looked as though she was about to be sick. Then she seemed to make a massive effort. ‘I know what I’m talking about,’ she said. ‘I’ve studied real-life serial killers for years. The ones who really catch the public imagination are the women and the young ones.’
    And the ones who never get caught
, thought Barney.
Don’t tell him that.
    Lacey’s face seemed to darken, and for a second her eyes lost focus. Then she took a deep breath. ‘You know what you should do now,’ she said, still speaking directly to Jorge. ‘Go to the nearest police station and tell them to organize a press conference. They’ll do it, if you say it’s about the case. And they’ll have heard of you. I mean, you’re practically a celebrity. Then you can announce to the whole world it was you. You could say you knew the police were never going to catch you and you just got bored with it.’
    Barney watched Jorge’s face for a reaction. If Lacey could just persuade him to leave the building, she could get herself free and call for help. Even if Jorge took her phone, she could untie him and Huck. She wouldn’t let Jorge catch her off guard again. Huck’s duct-tape gag was almost off. He’d be able to yell soon.
    ‘What will they do to me?’ asked Jorge, surprising Barney. It was the question of a child. Lacey obviously thought so too. She was giving him a reassuring smile.
    ‘You’re too young to go to prison,’ she said. ‘They’ll probably send you to a special facility, just for a few years, just till you’re eighteen.Then they’ll give you a new identity, maybe send you somewhere really cool like Australia and you can sell your story. I wouldn’t be surprised if they make a film about you.’
    Jorge was nodding and Barney felt a rush of hope. It was going to work. There were plenty of sharp edges in the room – once they were left alone, Lacey could free herself in minutes. But then Jorge stood, tensed his whole body and leaped forward. The rope carried him into the centre of the room and he let go, landing lightly beside Lacey.
    ‘Or I could kill these two, and then you, and make it look like you did it before killing yourself out of remorse.’ Jorge smiled, and suddenly looked nothing like a child. ‘I wouldn’t even have the bother of getting rid of the bodies then. I know what I’m talking about, I’ve studied real-life serial killers for years.’
    Barney closed his eyes, and gave up.
    ‘I don’t know anything,’ said Abbie. ‘Sylvia, have you any idea what time he went out?’
    ‘We always wonder, when there’s a killer amongst us,’ said Dana. ‘We ask ourselves, have I seen him, spoken to him, do I know him? I’ve been on the news saying “Someone knows him” over and over again. I wanted everyone in London to ask themselves that question.’
    Abbie Soar hadn’t moved from her spot at the foot of the stairs.
    ‘But you had more reason than most, didn’t you?’ said Dana, trying to recall the conversation she and Susan Richmond had had on the way over. ‘After what you and Jorge went through when he was young. What happens to us in the first three years of life has a massive impact upon who we are as people.’
    Huge pale-blue eyes couldn’t quite meet Dana’s. ‘I thought Jorge was dead too, that day,’ Abbie said. ‘When I pulled him out of the backpack, he was covered in his father’s blood.’
    ‘He doesn’t remember it,’ said his grandmother. ‘He was only a baby. We’ve never talked about it.’
    ‘What happened to you and your family was on the news all over the world,’ said Dana, ignoring the older woman. ‘There’s a huge amount of coverage on the internet even now. We found it inseconds. Have you never wondered if Jorge has done the same thing? He might even have convinced himself that he remembers it all.’
    ‘She wasn’t even allowed to wash him,’ said Sylvia. ‘The two of them were put straight in the truck and taken to the capital. Four hours in that hot, stinking truck, and all the time that poor baby covered in blood.’
    ‘It was the blood that made you suspicious, wasn’t it?’ said Dana, still talking to Abbie. ‘Blood on his clothes?’
    ‘Jorge washes his own clothes,’ said the grandmother, still at the top of the stairs. ‘He insists on that. I did spot some blood one time, but it was fake blood, from that show he’s in. I know he was