Hypothermia had been setting in when Karin had dragged her out of the canal. Leanne’s body had been shutting down, and the blood supply to her extremities had been diverted to vital organs. She didn’t know how they had hauled Claudia’s lifeless body out of the water, but they had done it together.

‘She’s not breathing,’ Leanne had said, her body shaking violently.

Karin pulled off her coat and offered it to Leanne. ‘An ambulance is on the way.’

‘We can’t wait. Do you know CPR?’

‘Yes, but you can’t ask me to do that,’ Karin replied. ‘Not after everything she’s done.’

‘You have to.’

Despite her protests, Karin had already positioned herself to the side of Claudia’s prone body. Whatever she might say, she was the same person who had dug Amelia out of the rubble with her bare hands. Karin wouldn’t stand by and watch Claudia die, but she might have cursed under her breath as she slipped a hand beneath Claudia’s neck to tilt her head upwards. She scraped back dark tendrils of hair from Claudia’s porcelain skin and parted her blue lips. Two rescue breaths. Fifteen compressions. Leanne counted them out until the paramedics arrived.

In Leanne’s view, it was Karin who had shown the greatest courage that day. Claudia had thought she could manipulate and destroy Declan’s sister as she had done to him. In return, Karin had saved her life. What an incredible human being.

Claudia, on the other hand, was the antithesis of a hero and, as Leanne steered the boat through the tunnel, she hoped that the cell Claudia currently occupied was equally dark and dank. She had initially refuted all of the accusations that had been levelled against her. In particular, she claimed that she had been acting in self-defence when she had grappled with Karin in the tunnel. In a perverse kind of way, her attack had been a means of self-preservation, if you accept that a fantasy life was worth killing for.

In relation to the more serious charge of murder, Claudia claimed she had followed Declan up to the circle with the single intention of helping Hilary Clarke, having heard one of Hilary’s students mention she was trapped. Leanne didn’t believe it, but she hoped the part about Claudia holding Hilary’s hand as she died was true. It would undoubtedly form part of her defence and establish that Declan’s murder hadn’t been premeditated. Rumour had it that she was going to admit to a lesser charge based on diminished responsibility. Any admission of guilt would be a first for Claudia and suggested there was hope for her after all. Her husband must think so. Justin had been visiting her in prison.