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But there was most certainly no one there.

Kelly tried the basement door. It opened easily. There was a padlock on the other side, hanging unsecured.

She ran up the flight of stairs and threw open the door at the top, which also had a padlock hanging loose on a hook.

The house, she quickly established, was empty.

She found her way to the front door, ran outside and around the side of the building, where Edward, still standing with the phone pressed to his ear, let out a cry of horror.

‘Good God! I thought she’d turned up for real!’

Kelly shook her head and quickly explained what she’d found.

‘There was no one there. It looked as though someone had been held prisoner, and there was a table set up for playing cards, but there was definitely no one there. They’ve gone.’

‘The Littleslades must have heard from Lars that someone called that phone,’ Edward said. ‘They must have gone somewhere else.’

‘Where?’ Kelly said.

She looked at Edward, who was staring past her shoulder.

As she watched, he slowly raised a hand and pointed.

She turned.

There, silhouetted on the hillside above the village, stood the Hanging Tree.

The sun was already low in the sky, with perhaps an hour left before sunset, and its angle threw the hilltop into sharp relief.

There, Kelly saw a man standing beside the edge of the steep cliff.

‘They’ve gone up there,’ Edward said. ‘It’s the place where everything begins and ends in this village. The Hanging Tree.’

34

A Game of Fortune

‘I don’t think the police really believed me,’ Edward said, as the quad bike sped through the village towards the trails leading up to the hilltop. ‘I think they thought I was playing some kind of practical joke, but they said they’ll send someone out to have a word.’

‘We can’t wait,’ Kelly said. ‘It could all be over soon.’

The quad bike was well suited to speeding along the lower trails, but as the hill began to steepen, they soon reached a point where the path became so narrow they had no choice but to continue on foot.

As they climbed off, Edward asked, ‘Are you going to keep wearing that dress?’

Kelly smiled. ‘I don’t have time to change. Come on. There’s no time to lose.’

They hurried up the path. By the time they reached the hilltop, the sun was setting. The tree, gothic and elegant, stood at the edge of the hill where the land dropped steeply away, its twisting branches curved like giant clutching hands as though lamenting its endless torment beneath the purple sky.

At first, beneath its weaving branches, they could see only shadow. But as they got closer, they made out a table set up beneath the tree. Two men sat on either side, while another man and a woman stood nearby.

Kelly recognised Pierce Littleslade on one side. Although she didn’t recognise the other man, Edward’s sharp cry of, ‘Dad!’ told her all she needed to know.

Clive Dawkins, grey-haired and lightly bearded, looked tired. As Kelly and Edward approached, Lars and Mrs Littleslade, who had been standing behind the table, noticed them. Lars stepped forwards, raising his hands.

‘Stay back!’

‘You scumbag,’ Edward shouted.