Strachan did as he’d said and reversed back out onto the lane – and carried on going until she had put a couple of hundred feet between them and the house.

Ogden spoke into his radio as she killed the lights and climbed out, informing the dispatcher of the situation and giving the address.

Strachan was some way ahead when he finished the call, and he ran stealthily after her, sticking close to the hedgerow.

Touching her arm to stop her before she reached the driveway, he pointed to a gap in the hedge that would allow them to go down the side of the house without anyone seeing them. He had no idea what was going on in there, but the daughter-in-law had mentioned that the owner of the house used to own a shotgun before he’d retired from farming. She’d also said that she thought the man had got rid of it, but that meant there was a chance that he hadn’t, and he wasn’t taking the risk.

The two detectives made their way down the side of the hedge until they reached a gap through which they could see the back of the farmhouse. The kitchen light was on, and Strachan nudged her colleague and nodded toward the prone body of a man she’d spotted lying some feet away from the back door. Ogden saw it and gestured with a finger that they should go back to the car and wait for the ARU to arrive.

Before they could move, the back door opened, and a woman was shoved roughly outside. She fell and cried out in pain when she sprawled face down on the gravel. A man walked outside holding a shotgun.

‘Think you’re so fuckin’ clever, don’t you?’ he spat, aiming the gun at her back. ‘Well, let’s see how clever you are when your brains are splattered all over the fuckin’ countryside, eh?’

Strachan heard a click, and a rush of adrenaline coursed through her veins. She had a split second to act, but that was all it took for her to pull the Taser off her belt and throw herself through the hedge to get a clear shot at the man’s thick neck.

He started convulsing as soon as the wire attached itself, and Strachan, still half crouching, ran over and kicked the gun he’d dropped out of his reach.

Another man lurched out through the door, and Ogden yelled, ‘Stay where you are, or you’re gonna get the same!’

The man glanced at him, saw the Taser in his hand, and ran hell for leather across the garden, leaping over the fence into the field beyond.

‘Leave him!’ Strachan yelled when Odgen made to give chase.

Rushing over to the woman instead, Ogden dragged her out of the light spilling from the door as the beam of a helicopter’s spotlight cut through the clouds.