I let him drag me away from the van, pretending to resist. He still had my left arm bent behind my back, his fingers knotted in my hair. Slowly I drew my right fist from my pocket, keys projecting between my fingers in a spiky knuckleduster, then swung my arm back fast, as I pivoted on one foot, turned and hit him hard in the face. If the blow had connected squarely, he’d have lost an eye. As it was, I misjudged a little, but the keys scraped across his forehead, leaving bloody tramlines over his brow and across the bridge of his nose.

He leapt back, cursing. I hit him again and this time the keys made a soft, sickening connection. The impact shuddered through my fist sending agonising pain up my arm. Vlad screamed, staggering, reeling like a drunk, shielding his eye with his palm. I tried to unlock the van but my shaking fingers wouldn’t work. I dropped the keys as he launched himself towards me. There was no time to pick them up, to get in the van, no time to do anything. All I could do was run.

Ahead of me the lane was lost in darkness, the masses of the hedgerows blocking out the evening sky. I saw the flickering swoop of a bat hunting in the dusk.

I hurtled down the track, praying that no rut or stone would trip me, send me flying. As I reached a bend, I risked a glance over my shoulder. Vlad was getting into the red car. He could catch up with me in seconds, run me down. I had to get off the lane and there was only one place I could go.

As Paul’s gate came into view I swerved and more or less threw myself over it into the field. I landed hard, slipping on mud and cursing, and raced off towards the caravan. No friendly light shone out from its windows, no promise of safety. I banged on the door with clenched fists and yelled his name. No answer. He wasn’t at home. Of course he wasn’t, I remembered, as I stood there, heaving air into my lungs, nursing my throbbing hand: he had told me. He was in bloody Truro.

I glimpsed a flash of red through the branches of the hedge as Vlad’s car passed. Then I heard tyres crunch to a gravelly halt. The car backed slowly into view and drew to a stop beyond the gate. I cursed softly.

As I heard the car door open I ducked down out of sight behind the workshop. The safety of home was only two fields away. But if I made a break for it, I’d be out in the open. Vlad would see me and I wasn’t sure I could outrun him the full distance. Better to find a hiding place.