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It was, therefore, a lie.

But what if it wasn’t? And really, why would Carl lie? What if the coded message was correct? Then somebody else had come after him and was now holding both of them captive.

The only other person who knew she was here was Ryan, and she supposed he could have arrived to find Carl attacking his wife, in which case he may have tied him up … but he would have set her free.

So not Ryan, then. Which led to another mystery.

Where was Ryan?

He should have been here before Carl. The fact that he wasn’t suggested he had never left Barrow. Had Carl stopped him, before coming here, only to run into someone else? Who was the someone else?

She added a headache to her list of ailments.

Carl – if it was him – began to tap out a new message.

WHO ARE YOU?

Mary frowned. He must know who she was. He had driven out here – she had seen his car – and he must have known he would find her here. Or why had he come in the first place?

Unless it wasn’t Carl, in which case he wouldn’t know who was in the next room. But if it was Carl then he would pretend not to know.

This was hopeless. Her headache deepened.

She didn’t want to say anything. She closed her eyes and tried to block out the pain.

The tapping began again.

WHO A

He was repeating the question. Surely it couldn’t harm her to answer? After all, how much worse could things really get? She banged her heels on the floor, then started to tap her reply.

MARY

There was a long pause, then he – or she – began again.

JORDAN?

She assumed the question mark, and replied with just one letter:

Y

After a moment she tapped a question.

YOU ARE CARL?

He replied with the same single letter.

Y

Before she could decide on her next message he began to tap. It was a long message and she had to concentrate hard to decipher it.

WHY ARE YOU HERE IS IT TO DO WITH THE STUFF GRAY ASKED ABOUT

She thought about his question before answering. Is it to do with the stuff Gray asked about? Whoever it was knew that Gray had been talking to Carl about the notes and photos and all the rest, and there weren’t many people who had access to that information.

Her, Gray, Ryan.

Carl.