One shore of the lake sloped up to a broad fell. The other was bordered by the scree slope behind her now. It was a solid wall of rock, and it towered menacingly over the lake and everything – her included – near it.

She shrugged her rucksack off and sat down. Brenda knelt by the water and put her hand in.

‘Jeez,’ she said. ‘It’s freezing. Even in the summer.’

‘I don’t think it gets that much sun,’ Alice said. ‘Didn’t Sharon say it’s the deepest lake, too?’ She pictured a yawning chasm beneath the water, a crack in the surface of the world that went deep into the crust. How far down did it go? Hundreds of feet? Thousands? It felt like it could be anything, an endless depth.

Brenda splashed water on her face. ‘Lunch?’ she said. ‘I made some sandwiches.’

‘Sounds good.’

Brenda opened her rucksack and took out the day pack. She put it on the rocks beside her and opened the flap, then took out a plastic bag.

‘Ham,’ she said. ‘That was all I had left.’

She took a sandwich from the bag and handed it to Alice. The sandwich was warm and a bit squashed, but Alice was hungry after the walk around the lake and her hunger made it taste good.

‘Thanks,’ she said. She took a bottle of water from her bag and took a swig. It too was warm, so she put it in the lake and held it down with a rock. ‘You want some water?’

Brenda shook her head. ‘I have some.’ She opened the flap of her day pack again and took out a flask. Alice saw the envelopes. It really was a risk to carry that much money. She could drop the bag in the lake, or off a cliff, or someone could find out it was there and take it from her.

People had killed for less than that, after all.

‘What will you do when you get to Liverpool?’ Alice said.

‘Go to the youth hostel,’ Brenda said. ‘My friends are there already.’

‘What are their names?’ Alice said.

‘Nicky and Donna,’ Brenda said.

‘Have you known them long?’

‘Yeah, we go way back. We met in high school.’

‘I’d like to meet them,’ Alice said.

‘Maybe we can get together before we go back,’ Brenda said. ‘We could come to Nottingham. That’d be cool.’

‘I need some way of getting in touch,’ Alice said. ‘You’re not on Facebook, and you don’t have a phone – maybe they’re on Facebook? I could contact them.’ She took out her phone. ‘What are their surnames? I’ll look them up.’

For a moment Brenda’s expression froze, then she shook her head. ‘They’re not on it either. I can give you my email address.’

‘Sure. What is it? I’ll type it in now.’