Sam stood up. ‘What are we going to do?’

Ellie put a hand on his forearm.

‘I spoke to your dad,’ she said.

She’d only given Sam the thinnest detail on the phone, just enough for him to warn Libby to get out the house.

‘How is he?’ Sam said.

He said it blankly, and Ellie couldn’t work out what he meant, was he worried about him, or sorry he wasn’t dead?

‘He’s in pain, but OK I think.’

‘I wish you’d killed him,’ Libby said.

Ellie looked at her. She was so confident about life, no concept of mortality yet.

‘And what if he had?’ Ellie said. ‘Then your brother would be a murderer. Is that what you want?’

Libby lowered her head.

‘Take it easy,’ Sam said, putting a hand out. ‘How did he get out of hospital so quick?’

Ellie shook her head. ‘I don’t know, maybe he checked himself out. He’s heavily bandaged around the stomach.’

A brief look passed between her and Sam, acknowledging his role in that.

‘He seemed exhausted,’ Ellie said. ‘I don’t think he should be out of hospital.’

‘How did he find you?’ Libby said.

‘He met me when I came out of the police station.’

Sam frowned. ‘Why were you in the police station?’

‘They asked me in for questioning. Just routine.’

‘Routine?’

Ellie sighed. ‘I went to see your mum.’

‘What did you say to her?’

Ellie showed her palms. ‘I wanted to speak to her about what’s been going on, about Libby and your dad.’

Libby’s face fell. ‘Oh my God, you didn’t tell her, did you?’

‘I thought that’s what you wanted?’ Ellie said.

Libby shifted on her seat, agitated. ‘Things are going to be so much worse now.’

‘Why?’

‘They just are,’ Libby said. ‘I can’t go back there.’

Sam looked at her. ‘You don’t have to go back there, don’t worry.’ He turned to Ellie. ‘She can stay here, right?’

Ellie rubbed at her forehead. ‘For tonight. But tomorrow we have to sort this out.’

‘How do you mean?’ said Sam.

Ellie paused for a moment. ‘Libby, you have to go to the police, tell them what your dad’s been doing to you.’

‘No.’

‘You have to,’ Ellie said. ‘It’s the only way this can be finished.’

‘I can’t.’

‘Why not?’

Libby rubbed at her arm. ‘I told you already. He’s one of them, they won’t believe me.’

‘They will.’

‘They won’t. And then things will be a hundred times worse. They won’t do anything, and I’ll have to go back home and live there with him and Mum, and they’ll both know I told on him.’

‘My God, Libby, this isn’t about telling on people,’ Ellie said. ‘This is child abuse and rape. Your dad is a criminal.’

‘I’m not going to the police,’ Libby said.

Ellie walked over and sat next to her. ‘I’ll come with you, I’ll be there the whole time. If you don’t want to continue at any point, then we don’t have to. There’s a nice policewoman there, I met her today, PC Macdonald, I’ll insist we talk to her. It’ll be fine.’

Libby shook her head.

‘It makes sense, Lib,’ Sam said.

‘I can’t do it.’

Ellie looked at her. ‘You want it to stop, don’t you?’

Libby stared at her. ‘Of course.’

‘Well?’

Libby sighed.

Ellie put her hand on the girl’s. It was bony, cold, poor circulation.

‘I know it’s hard to talk about these things, but you have to in order to make it go away.’

Libby didn’t speak.

Ellie thought about her conversation in the car with Jack. Steadied her hand.

‘Are you absolutely sure about what he’s been doing to you?’

Sam took a step towards them. ‘What do you mean? Of course she’s sure.’

Ellie looked up. ‘I’m just asking because it’s what the police will ask.’

Libby had her head down. Ellie felt Libby’s hand move under her own.

‘Libby?’

The girl began to sniff, precursor to tears. Was she turning on the waterworks, or was this for real? She nodded her head, keeping her face down.

‘I’m sure.’

Sam spoke. ‘What did he say when you spoke to him?’

Ellie looked up. ‘He denied it completely. Said it was all a misunderstanding.’

‘What a cunt,’ Sam said. ‘A misunderstanding? He was in her room. I know what I saw.’

Libby was crying now.

‘He said he was just comforting her, giving her a hug,’ Ellie said.

Sam snorted. ‘A hug? With his trousers down?’

Ellie kept her gaze steady on Sam, kept rubbing Libby’s hand.

‘He said that you’ve had some problems, Sam.’

Sam looked around, fists tight. ‘Fuck him.’

‘Mental problems.’

Sam looked like he was going to punch a hole in the wall. ‘I knew he’d use that against me.’

‘He said you’ve been hearing voices. Hallucinating. Said you were having trouble with different pills.’

‘I know what I saw,’ Sam said. ‘Ask Libby. This is not about hallucinations or anything like that.’

‘Take it easy,’ Ellie said. ‘Remember where I first met you, where I found you. What you were like.’

Sam’s neck muscles were straining but he reined it in, took a breath before he spoke. ‘That was different, that was after. Can you blame me, after what had happened? But I know what I saw. You think I’d just go around stabbing my dad for nothing?’ He looked at his sister. ‘Tell her, Lib.’

Libby wiped her tears on the cuff of her cardie, the material pulled down over her hands.

‘I told you already what he’s been doing,’ she said. ‘When you walked me back to the house. I wasn’t lying. I promise.’

‘That’s fine. I had to ask. I have to be clear, you understand?’

Libby nodded.

Ellie put a hand on her thigh. ‘We have to go and report this, though, you realise that? Nothing will change unless we get the police involved. It doesn’t matter that your dad’s a cop. If you tell them what you told me, they’ll arrest him, I promise.’

‘What about Sam?’ Libby said, looking up.

Ellie looked too. ‘That depends.’

‘On what?’ Sam said.

‘On what Jack tells the investigating officers.’

‘You mean he hasn’t told them that it was me who stabbed him?’

Ellie shook her head. ‘I don’t think so. He said he hadn’t. And they never mentioned it when they questioned me. Obviously you being missing is suspicious, but there’s no law against leaving home and not getting in touch if you’re over sixteen. If Jack doesn’t drop you in it you could be OK.’

‘Will he drop me in it?’

Ellie thought about that. If Jack was arrested, what would he do? Fight it? Retaliate against Sam? Cut his losses and admit what he’d done? She couldn’t untangle it in her mind. He said he just wanted his family back. But he’d been raping his own daughter.

‘I don’t honestly know,’ she said. ‘I hope not.’

This was the only way forward. If Libby reported Jack, he’d surely be taken into custody, then Libby and Sam could go home. Ellie tried to imagine the atmosphere in that house, between the two of them and their mum, under the cloud of Libby’s accusations. It wouldn’t be easy, but whatever path they took now wouldn’t be easy.

Ellie put an arm around Libby, who hunched up under the touch.

‘The pair of you stay here tonight,’ she said. ‘Then first thing tomorrow I’ll come and get Libby, and we can go to the police station together. You won’t have to see your dad. We’ll talk to someone there and they’ll deal with it. OK?’

Libby nodded. ‘OK.’

Ellie stood up and walked towards the stairs. Sam walked with her.

‘Just sit tight,’ Ellie said, then turned to look at Libby. ‘Will she be OK?’

Sam nodded. ‘I’ll look after her.’

‘You’re a good brother,’ Ellie said.

She reached up and stroked his cheek, felt him flinch.

‘See you tomorrow,’ she said.

29

It was dark now as Ellie stood at her front door. She brushed the familiar black wood with her fingers. She’d lived here for so long she knew every knot and whorl, every grain in the surface, every loose floorboard in the hallway, every cracked tile in the bathroom. The dent in the living-room wall where the Wii remote had flown out of Logan’s hand, narrowly missing Ben and the television. The stiff drawer on the wardrobe in her room where he’d stuffed a piece of Lego into the mechanism.