Desperately aware of another struggle going on just a few feet away, Grace did the only think he could think of. He yelled, ‘Shut the fuck up, I’m here to help you, not nick you!’

Somehow it did the trick. She calmed down instantly, staring up at him with blinking eyes.

‘I’m a police officer, understand?’

She nodded.

He let go of her, in time to see Branson rolling around on the ground, entangled with Rebecca Watkins.

Glenn Branson felt like he was wrestling with a creature that had a tiger’s head and the body of a vicious, writhing snake. Using all his training, he tried to pin the woman’s arms to the ground, but, catching him by surprise, she shifted her hips sideways, slipping her arms free, and jammed her fingers, agonizingly and blindingly, into both of his eyes.

He’d done self-defence training back in his days as a night-club bouncer, and he realized at this moment she’d clearly had combat or martial arts training too.

He tried to log in his mind where the edge of the cliff was, and had his arms outstretched to keep her off while he regained some of his vision. But then he felt a searing pain; she’d seen the opportunity to hyperextend his straightened arm and was attempting to pop his elbow.

He flung himself sideways, breaking free, before he felt her body slam into his hip from the side, pushing him.

Pushing him where?

He couldn’t stop her. Her base was low, and she’d seized her opportunity to use his own momentum as he lunged sideways. Even though she was far smaller and lighter than he was, it was nigh on impossible to drive back against her.

His training was kicking in, his brain almost going into slow motion. Thinking. But all he could see was darkness. And from the swirling updraught on his face, he knew he was just inches from the edge, from a drop into – oblivion.

Had to get away from the edge.

Had to seize the advantage. He needed to do a move she wasn’t expecting and surprise her.

Suddenly, he twisted back towards her and, keeping low, sprang at her with every ounce of strength he had in his body. But he could not believe the almost superhuman strength that came back at him, as if she’d been expecting this move.

A second later she slammed him down hard on the ground, her weight driving into his ribs, and he heard a loud crack as the air left his body in an involuntary groan. Dazed by the blinding pain in his midriff, alongside the shock that he had just been slammed by someone half his size, he tried desperately to think clearly, to work out what to do. He was compromised, hurt and in real trouble.

Wind tore at his face. He was on his back, and she was on top of him, and suddenly had her hands around his neck. Crushing it, pushing her thumbs into his windpipe. He saw her grunting face right in front of his as she pushed all her body weight down on him to tighten the choke. Despite struggling badly for oxygen, he knew this was his chance.