‘Tom,’ he said. ‘Is he alive?’

‘For now.’

‘What did you do to him?’

‘Heroin.’

His eyes widened. ‘You gave him heroin?’

‘To knock him out. Then I was going to push him out on the lake with Jo and capsize them. It’d look like a murder-suicide. But you showed up.’

‘So what now?’

‘This,’ she said, and dropped Jo into the lake.

Roland

Jo splashed into the water and sank. Alice sprinted out of the lake and up towards the house.

Roland understood her plan, but there was nothing he could do to stop her.

She was making him choose between rescuing his niece or chasing her. And there was only one choice.

He ran into the lake. The water was bitterly cold and dark. He reached the spot where she had dropped Jo and searched for her. For a moment he couldn’t find her, and then he saw a flash of white and plunged his hands into the water, grasping for his niece.

He felt an arm or a leg and grabbed it, then yanked her out of the water. She was pale and faintly blue and he didn’t think she was breathing, but he slapped her back and then she frowned and opened her mouth and started to cry.

It was the best sound he had ever heard. He clutched her to his chest. She was cold, and her clothes were wet, and he was going to have to warm her up, but first he had to check on Tom.

He ran to the boat, with Jo in one arm, and pressed his fingers to Tom’s neck.

There was a pulse. It was faint, but it was there. He needed to call an ambulance, and get the police here. He ran up to the house. His phone had no signal. Tom’s was on the terrace; he picked it up, but it was off and he didn’t know the passcode.

He went inside. Maybe he could find the router and get the password.

It was in the living room.

And next to it was an old rotary phone. He picked up the handset, and lifted it to his ear. There was a dial tone.

He rang 999. As he did, he looked out of the window.

Alice’s car was gone. But she couldn’t have got too far.

Alice

She was calm as she drove away. She had always known it might come to this. She put her hand on her day pack. It was why she kept it packed.

Australian dollars. Lots of them. As well as pounds, now. She had all the money she’d need.

As well as different coloured contact lenses. A couple of wigs. Some glasses with non-prescription lenses. A couple of ID cards.