"The face and the hand, disembodied, stayed there motionless: longer than Heidi thought she could bear. She could have heard their owner breathing, if he breathed at all. Then they withdrew, disappeared, and the footsteps sank down into the pit again.

Heidi sat up, staring into the dark, her hands pressed to her mouth so hard it hurt. What'll I do? she thought. What'll I do if he comes back? Nowhere is safe. There is no protection. Heidi's sweet, feckless father was deep in debt when he got murdered.

Now she's an Indentured Teen, a modern slave, and it's totally legal in this future England. Her owners are a weird old pair of crazies, she sleeps in a freezing attic, and still has to turn up for Learning Sessions with the other Mehilhoc Exempt Teens who obviously know the whole shameful story.

But that's okay. She has the Police Inspector's phone number, and the memory of his words: 'If you recall anything, anything at all, please get in touch... ' Somehow, someway, stuck out in the deepest sticks, she's going to prove that her Mum didn't kill her Dad.