‘Come on. I’ll help you walk. We need to get going. She’s injured and I think she’s harmless, but I don’t know where she is.’

I slipped my arm under Olivia’s shoulder blades and almost gasped. Her bones stuck out like shards of glass.

‘Where’re we going?’ she croaked.

‘To the closest house.’

She shook her head. ‘It’s too far. I’ll never make it.’

‘No, it’s not. There’s this farmhouse I found before, Knackers Yard. There’s a telephone inside. We can use that and call the police.’

‘I don’t think I can walk.’

‘You can. Lean on me.’ I helped her stand.

Despite her thinness, I struggled to hold her up. We tottered to the side and almost fell.

‘See?’ she said.

‘You can’t let her win,’ I said, trying to think. ‘There must be a way …’

Her head snapped up. She looked at me, eyes alert. ‘Her car! If we can find her keys, I can drive us to the hospital.’

I frowned. ‘She kept all of her keys on her belt.’

‘But she must have a spare somewhere. Everyone has a spare car key.’

‘OK,’ I said, trying to hide the doubt in my voice. I’d looked for keys before and only found the one that opened Mother’s bedroom door. I thought hard and realized that when Patrick had tried to help us get out of the cottage and I’d searched her bedroom for the front and back door keys, I’d been in a frantic rush and had searched quickly – so quickly that I could have missed a small key. Besides, a lot had happened since then. She could have moved everything around. Maybe there was a spare car key in her bedroom. I concentrated, racked my brain. Other places that seemed likely hiding spots that I’d never searched properly were the attic and Emma’s bedroom.

Thinking about Emma sucked the air out of my lungs. An image of her drowning in mud scuttled around my mind like a black beetle.

‘Polly? We need to move.’

‘Sorry,’ I said, helping her towards the back door.

Dread at going back inside the cottage made me stop. Nausea raced up my throat and saliva pooled on my tongue. I turned away and threw up all over the wall.

Chapter 50

I stared at the back door. It was wide open as if beckoning me back inside. I shook my head at Olivia.

‘It’s going to be OK,’ she said, ‘I’m with you. We’ll be in and out in a matter of minutes.’ She sucked in a sharp breath. Her face trembled.

‘I can’t,’ I said.

‘Polly, look at me. You can. You must. I can’t wait much longer and you can’t leave me in case—’