They will find the suicide note and – even though I will have died too – my plan will be complete.

Her husband will think she betrayed him.

Yes, they will wonder about the injuries, but my guess is they will put them down to our fall onto the jagged rocks below.

I will shout this into her ear as we fall, just so that it is her last thought.

‘I know,’ I say. ‘You win, Annabelle.’

Then, before she can process my admission of failure, I spring at her. I see her eyes widen in shock, then hear her squeal as my hands grab her left ankle and yank it towards me.

She stumbles and slips to one knee, kicking out at me to shake me free.

She has no chance.

I begin to drag her to the cliff edge.

‘Guy,’ she says. ‘No!’

I do not reply. I see the blow coming; the heel of her right foot, aimed at the side of my head. I take it; it makes me dizzy, but I am OK.

She does it again; I manage to twist my head out of the way.

And I still have her ankle. I drag again and we slide another few inches towards the cliff.

Then I feel it.

My feet are over the edge. Soon all I will have to do is fall, and gravity will do the rest. I inch further over the cliff.

‘No,’ she shouts. ‘Stop it, Guy!’

She kicks at me again. She cannot use her hands, as reaching down would bring her closer to the cliff edge, and her kicks are nothing to me.

One more heave, and this is over.

PC Jessie Chalmers

1

PC Jessie Chalmers looked left and right along the path that bisected the field. The car was parked a couple of hundred yards away and she and Toby, her partner, had assumed that the man and woman they were looking for had gone through the gap in the hedge and headed for the cliff.

‘I’ll go left,’ she said. ‘You go right. If you see them, shout.’

‘I’m not sure we should split up,’ Toby said. ‘He’s supposed to be dangerous.’

Chalmers shrugged. She had met her husband in a boxing gym; he had come in to get fit and she had trained him. She had been close to the Olympic team in 2012, but a shoulder injury had put an end to that particular dream.

‘I’ll be OK,’ she said.

‘It’s not you I’m worried about,’ Toby said. ‘But let’s do it. We don’t have a choice.’

She nodded, and set off to the left. She had not gone more than twenty yards when she froze.

‘Holy shit,’ she muttered. ‘What is that?’

2

A woman’s head had appeared above the cliff edge, as though she was climbing steps in the cliff itself. The head was followed by a torso.