And she had well and truly rattled their cage.

Hawkins backed up against the wall and climbed the first couple of steps, so she could see the tops of the doors on the landing. All were closed, and she tried to remember how she’d left them that morning.

She didn’t know.

Suddenly she became aware of how fast her heart was beating, its accelerated rhythm loud in her ears.

Another bump.

Hawkins continued upwards, avoiding the creaky board on the fifth step, stopping halfway to listen again. For a few seconds there was silence, and she began to think she’d been rumbled. Then another shuffle of feet told her that either her unannounced visitor wasn’t trying to conceal their presence, or that they didn’t think their movements could be heard.

She swallowed and kept going, noting as her head cleared first-floor level that a glow was escaping from under her bedroom door, and she definitely hadn’t left that light on. She reached the landing, checking the doors to the bathroom and the spare bedroom, relieved to see no glow from either.

Heart pounding, she slid to the airing cupboard, eased it open and retrieved the rounders bat she kept there for emergencies, hearing another muted bump from the bedroom as she approached. At least the noises sounded like they were being made by a lone person. She reached the door, trying to steady herself, fingers over the handle, bat raised.

When it started to open.

Without thinking, Hawkins kicked out, propelling the door inwards. She heard it connect, and someone on the other side gave a shocked grunt. Footsteps staggered away as Hawkins launched herself into the room, blinking in the shock of the light, bringing the bat down hard on the back of the figure now hunched over the bed, feeling the crunch of wood on bone.

‘Toni!’ Mike shouted as he slumped. ‘What the hell?’

Hawkins’ heart leapt, but she managed to stop the bat before her next blow landed. She looked down at her victim, now on his knees in front of her, saw the headphones as he pulled them out of his ears. The reason he hadn’t heard her come in.

‘Shit.’ She dropped the bat, tried to help him up. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘Collecting my damn stuff.’ Mike waved towards the door.

Hawkins glanced around, saw the flight case he’d dropped. ‘I thought someone had broken in.’

‘My car’s out front.’ He groaned, lifting himself into a sitting position on the end of the bed, wincing as he stretched his back. ‘What did you hit me with?’

Hawkins used her foot to ease the bat under the edge of the bed before sitting beside him. ‘I didn’t expect you to be here.’

‘No shit.’ Mike touched his temple, wincing as his fingers made contact with the cut above his right eye. ‘You’re never home before eight.’