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He had shaved off his beard. The girl had seen him last night and he couldn’t risk being recognised by her the next time. He sat at the kitchen table and watched the young woman robotically serve up breakfast. She was too thin and fragile-looking, not that anyone would notice. She never went outside. Lack of vitamin D, maybe.

He felt as if something dreadful was about to happen. He used to regularly have feelings of foreboding, but it had been a long time since the darkness had fallen like a weight behind his eyes.

He slipped his phone out of his pocket and tapped the news app. He closed his eyes, hoping there wasn’t anything in the first few posts about the dead woman. When he opened them, he glanced at the headlines. She’d been demoted to the second level of interest. The first report was about the death at the Pine Grove housing development.

A tight grip of fear seized his chest and he struggled to breathe. Tapping into the story, he brought up the image of a house encircled with garda tape. Scrolling, he read quickly. The body had been found in a show home. A labourer from GC Construction. No name yet. But he knew who it was. He’d known when he’d first heard reports yesterday.

He shut off the phone as the girl placed a plate in front of him.

The fried eggs had broken on the pan and looked like a flat, greasy omelette. He rarely showed aggression in the house, especially when he was due to work. But he couldn’t help himself. All the years of suppression, of bending to her will, suddenly rose like a torrent, and he lashed out at the captive woman and screamed.

The strangled sound that came from his lips caused her to drop the spatula on the tiles she’d spent an hour scrubbing at six o’clock that morning. Grease splashed up on the cupboard doors and micro dots stained her legs. Hurriedly she picked up the offending article just as he lifted the plate of food and flung it at the wall behind her. She ducked automatically, though her reflexes of late had been slow. Too long cooped up in a small space. Too long with her mouth taped shut. Too long being forced to be subservient.

Shrinking against the stove, she dared not glance behind her at the mess streaking the wall. She kept her eyes focused on him. He tore at his hair and smacked his cheeks with his ugly fingers. She had been terrified since the day she’d been brought here, but this development caused her to be petrified. Her legs were like jelly, her hands trembled and she wanted to cry. She feared he was spiralling out of control.

‘What are you looking at?’ he snarled. ‘Clean up this pigsty before she comes back.’

She cowered, expecting a blow. But the back door opened and shut as he retreated to his shed.

Lowering her shoulders, she exhaled with relief. At least he hadn’t hit her. She’d fetched a cloth to clean up when she heard the front door. Terror shot through her all over again.

The woman was back.