I scramble to my feet inside the walls of the garden, ready to follow Dana towards the door she’s already gone through. My hand is on the lock when the iron rod smashes against the wall next to me, ricocheting back against my face. I fall to the ground, a searing pain across my forehead and down one cheek. Carl’s boot connects with my stomach, then he bends to pick up the iron rod again. I have a sudden sensation of floating. And then the pain comes.

Scrambling along the wall, I raise my arm against the iron rod as Carl thrashes down with it. His first blow I manage to block, my forearm against his wrist, but the second strike catches me on the elbow and the world explodes into showers of sparks and white flashes.

‘Stop!’

It’s Dana’s voice. She didn’t go through the door after all. She’s standing against the wooden hoarding. Carl must have gone straight past her, chasing me.

Slowly, Carl rounds on her, the iron rod grasped in his fist.

‘You.’ His voice is animal, wild.

‘Leave him alone.’ Dana edges along the wall towards the big, red bush. The bush with the well behind it. I pull myself to my feet.

‘You fucking bitch! You traitor slut!’ He re-balances the iron rod, bouncing it his palm. Overhead, the roar of rotor blades. Someone shouts through a loudhailer.

Dana is almost in front of the well when Carl launches at her. She runs back on herself, wrong-footing Carl for the split second that I need. With all my strength, I hurl my body against Carl’s side, driving into him just below his shoulder. He takes two, three steps sideways and I keep pushing, my vision split and pulsing from the pain in my arm. Through the snowdrops, leaving smears of mud on their bowed heads, into the red-leafed bush he goes, trying to get a foothold. I stop, falling to my knees, my body beginning to shut down.

To steady himself, Carl takes one more step backwards, into the bush. Watching me fall at his feet, his eyes narrow again, and he raises the rod ready to finish me off.

There’s a wet crunch. The boards on top of the old well must have crumbled like dust.

Then, three things happen at once.

Two policemen appear on top of the wall and drop heavily into the garden.

Dana throws her arms around my neck and we fall, panting, to the wet grass.

Carl’s eyes widen, then, along with the rest of him, disappear into the ground.

The bush leaves resettle themselves above where Carl stood. A hollow clang echoes up a second later as the iron rod hits the bottom of the well.

Even against the blast of the rotor blades, for a second or two I hear only my own heartbeat fast in my ears. Then there’s a shout from the bush.