Rita gripped the keys Lina had given her like weapons as she strode up to Federico's door. It was too bad her gun was in her flat in Valladolid. Sweat ran down her neck despite the cold air and the weak sunlight. She put the key into the door, feeling like she was carrying out a military operation rather than retrieving a schoolgirl's belongings. It took a forceful shove before the door gave way.

'I'm here. Remember 1 hour.' She sent the message, then stuffed her phone back in her bag.

Instantaneously, Pepperoni the cat burst out, and hung around on the steps meowing at her. On instinct Rita bent down to stroke him before stepping inside but he slipped away and darted around some scruffy plants. She kept the door open for a few moments but the cat didn't come back so she closed it carefully. She took her shoes off slowly, then trudged upstairs. The air in the house smelt musty and close.

Lina's room, at the top of the stairs, was a pale lilac colour which reminded Rita of her room when she was a kid. Posters of K-pop bands covered one of the walls. The room was neat and tidy but the door was old and flimsy. The pink carpet was fraying. The walls were thin and Rita could see how she would have been forced to hear everything. She rummaged in the drawers and pulled out two tops, some underwear, a skirt and a pair of trousers, stuffed them into a carrier bag.

She felt like a burglar, a criminal, although the kid had asked her to do this.

She opened more drawers and ripped the duvet off the mattress, but couldn't find a laptop. She checked under the bed and in Lina's wardrobe.

It wasn't there either.

Her heart pounded an ever more frantic beat as she searched the room again and again.

Finally, she walked down the passage towards the other rooms, the floor creaking underneath her. The first room she looked in smelt faintly of booze. Every noise real and imagined made her jump. There were a few cans of beer in the bin and a few clothes on the floor but it was otherwise tidy. Rita nudged the clothes out of the way but the laptop wasn't underneath.

She edged away slowly, taking a last scan around Federico's room, and shut the door. Then she walked to the last room on the end of the corridor.

Matteo's.

As she looked at the door she took out the woollen gloves she had put back in her bag when she entered the house, and slid them over her fingers. Then, she tied her hair back in a black scrunchie. She dug around in her pocket for an old face mask and strapped it over her chin.

If a cop was leading this cult, she couldn't be too careful with evidence.

The door was stiff and took effort to shove open. When she pushed it wide it banged on Matteo's plain wooden bed. There was a cardboard box by his bed and Rita saw that it was full of pamphlets. The first that caught her eye was entitled 'Countdown to the End' with a mushroom cloud on its cover. It would have been laughable under different circumstances. It still was, Rita thought.

Underneath it was one titled 'Are Catholics Christian?'. Another was called 'Synagogue of Satan'. The one Rita picked up was 'Godly Discipline in the Home'.

'Dios mio,' she murmured, her voice barely audible to herself as she took photos of the pamphlets, and flicked through as many pages as she could stand. Her teeth gritted in anger and bile rose in her throat as she read their twisted justifications for what they termed 'godly discipline'. It was just domestic violence. After a minute or two she couldn't bear to read any more. She replaced the pamphlet in the box, feeling defiled just from looking, took several deep breaths before she brought herself to peek under the bed. There were a few socks under there but otherwise nothing.

In some ways the kid was so normal. Who would have thought?

She hauled herself up on her knees. One of her legs had started giving her trouble again and this morning she hadn't taken any painkillers. She stood up and wandered to Matteo's wardrobe, tugged it open.

What she saw made her gasp. There were very few clothes hanging there.

The back of the built in wardrobe was covered with thick baking paper stuck down on one side. Written on the parchment in thick black marker pen was a single word - JEZEBEL. Peeking out from behind the parchment Rita could see something else, something dark and glossy.

She lifted the paper up and saw that there was a collage of blu-tacked photographs of Erica Scott.

Walking around. Eating lunch. Staring out of a window. She wasn't looking at the camera in any of them. Rita shone her phone around, snapped a picture, her skin crawling as she stared into the depths of Matteo's obsession. The parchment paper made it worse. Like he was trying to stop Erica being seen.

On the bottom shelf was a plastic carrier bag with what looked like broken electronics inside it.

Wires poked out.

Her heart pounded, half expecting to see a detonator.

They wouldn't keep it here, she told herself. They wouldn't be that stupid.

Gingerly, she peered over the plastic bag, taking care not to touch it, then sank back, deflated.

It wasn't a bomb. It was Lina's smashed up laptop.

Rita sat for a moment, nausea filling her body. She took a photo, then rummaged around in the bag until she found the hard drive. The broken computer was dripping wet when she touched it. She slipped the drive into a plastic bag and then put it in one of her bag's compartments. It looked dented but maybe it could be salvaged - didn't look like it but maybe. A bit of broken glass pricked her finger through her glove.

She stood up, feeling faint, trying not to cry. Then, she walked out of the room, shut the door behind her.

Biting her lip, she walked towards the landing with Lina's things. She sent a quick reply to Alfonso. 'Leaving now. Please call me soon.'

Then she froze on the top of the stairs. A key turned in the lock and the air turned frigid and damp. Pepperoni dashed back through the hall with a meow.

Federico. Not Matteo. Relief flooded her. Lina had been right. He was with his fellow disciples, although there was nothing comforting about that.

But that relief was short lived when the man looked up the stairs.

'Rita? What is this? What the hell are you doing in my house?'

Fighting to stay calm, she tried not to let her voice shake. 'Lina gave me a key, so I'm taking some of her clothes.' She sucked in a breath. 'She's staying somewhere else for a night or two. She says it's not safe for her here, and I agree.'

'Not safe?' Federico looked confused, devastated and angry. 'But she is safe. I didn't understand what my brother was saying last night. She didn't have to run away. Things aren't easy with Matteo. They never were. They have always fought a lot. He is a difficult boy. And sometimes, yes, he has frightened me.' He gave Rita a pleading look. 'But Lina is safe with me. She knows I'd never let anything happen to her.'

'Something already has,' Rita hissed. 'Take a look in your son's room. Take a look at the kind of literature that sect he belongs to is giving him to read. Take a look in his cupboards. Maybe you could, instead of going out drinking, hang out in Lina's room once in a while and listen to the things him and his friends talk about.' Her muscles tightened as she gripped her phone tightly. 'See things as they are, not how you want them to be.'

Federico gaped at her. She expected him to fire angry words back at her. But instead he just stared, seeming to look at something past her.

'He's destroyed Lina's laptop.' She rummaged for the dented hard drive in her bag, brought it out and brandished it. 'He poured water on it and smashed it up. Maybe she's written  something down he doesn't like. Or maybe he just doesn't want girls to be educated. He doesn't seem to approve of that.'

Doing this almost felt cruel. Federico was falling apart in front of her.

'I don't know what to do about my son,' Federico mumbled. 'Since Jade left he was never the same.' His mouth opened and closed and Rita wanted to pity him. Her anger won out for now. 'You must think I'm a terrible dad. The fact is I don't know what to do.'

Rita descended the stairs step by step. 'Yes. I can see that.'

Federico looked at her hopelessly. 'I know he goes to church. He doesn't talk about it with me. When he finished his probation, I thought, better that than stewing in his room playing games. Or looking at porn. Hassling more women. I - I wanted him to do something positive with his life. I thought, he wouldn't listen to me. Maybe God could teach him the things I couldn't.' He gave a deep sigh. 'Understand?'

'This group is not a real church,' Rita said, reaching the bottom of the creaky staircase. Her voice was soft and even to her it sounded laden with menace. 'They have made the issues he had before worse. He can hurt whoever he wants if 'the bible says so'. Cults like Abundant Blessings use God and scriptures to justify anything. Lina's life is in danger and so is yours.'

'But this can't be true,' Federico said miserably. 'He has a job. He has a life. He's going to be better.' He fixed Rita with a watery gaze. 'The police let him go. They said he didn't kill her. They said he wasn't there.'

'Do you want me to show you?' Rita snapped, in more despair than rage.

Federico stared miserably and took a shambling step back. Tears brimmed around his eyes as he gave a rattling gasp, his face red. The stuffy air made it hard for Rita to breathe. The man before her shook his head very slightly.

'No,' he stuttered. 'No. Get out.'