At last Jasmine returned with two skinny lattes and a granola bar to share. As soon as the passenger door was closed Claudia hit the locks again and after taking a sip of her coffee she started back to the motorway.

It was shortly before eleven o’clock, when they were passing the turnoff for Cirencester and Chippenham, that Jasmine said, “Should we try the radio now?”

Experiencing yet another sickening jolt of nerves, Claudia simply nodded.

As they listened to the headlines she was aware of how tightly she was gripping the wheel. Not that she was expecting to hear anything about their disappearance—it was still far too early for that—or about her failure to appear in court this morning—that might not have been noticed either. It was his name she was listening for, and when it came with the information that a verdict was expected at any minute, she felt the blood pounding too fast in her heart.

Jasmine turned the radio off and said, “We’ll try again at midday.”

They were both subdued now—simply hearing his name was enough to do that to them. Jasmine seemed to revert to the withdrawn and anxious teenager she’d been before her mother and grandmother had plotted the escape. Claudia was internalizing her fears, doing all sorts of bargains with God and the universe if they would just make sure the jury did the right thing.

Maybe she shouldn’t have brought the attaché case.

“AND SO WE reach the end of the line,” Jasmine murmured, coming awake as Claudia finally brought the car to a stop outside the freshly whitewashed Victorian villa that was to be their home for the next few months—possibly longer. It was at the end of a seafront terrace on the busy Promenade, and the apartment they’d leased comprised the entire first floor with three good-sized bedrooms, two bathrooms, and a spacious sitting-cum-dining area with an open-plan kitchen. Its tall sash windows at the front overlooked the windy bay of Kesterly-on-Sea, where a mile-long stretch of sandy beach was hugged by two grassy headlands, and the restless waves provided a playground for surfers, sailors, and skiers.