Up the baton sailed, ready for the downward curve. Anna turned away. At the top of the lawn, bodies appeared at the cliff edge. Blue uniforms and high-vis jackets. Police. Lots. They crowded around the car, filing past, sailing over the edge and down, like a tide.

And that was when Ball Cap slid his arm around Dominic’s neck. He fell back, peeling Dominic off Nick like a plaster from skin, and tearing away those lethal hands. Nick seemed to use the last of his energy to heave himself over on to his back, and lay coughing as he tried to suck in air.

‘You’ll thank me later, Dom,’ Ball Cap said.

On his back, with Dominic’s spine against his chest, he locked in the chokehold. Thrashing, Dominic’s legs kicked fast and hard, and she watched them strike Nick’s chest and face. He struggled even to raise his arms to defend himself. Quickly, she crawled to him and collapsed on top, and those heavy blows dug into her flesh instead.

Policemen shouting. Policemen everywhere, looming over, cutting off the light. Someone tugged at her and she rolled off Nick to lie beside him, and found herself staring up at a face she knew. It was Lucy Miller.

‘They don’t have my girl!’ she screamed up at the woman.

Other police moved into her vision, surrounding her. She looked to one side and saw police prising Ball Cap off his unconscious partner’s back. She screamed it again: ‘They don’t have my girl.’

She lashed out, swiping aside two police officers and crawling between them. Someone grabbed her arm, but her free one lashed out again, this time towards Dominic, who was unconscious and being sat upright by two officers. Before anyone could stop her, she pulled her arm free and both hands clamped hard around his throat. Her fingernails raked skin as she was dragged backwards, away, and she clutched her fists hard to her chest.

She looked around. Nick was still awake but groggy as he returned her stare from just inches away. As Miller tried to soothe her and Bennet knelt by Nick to help him sit up, she heard her husband speak through lips coated in soil:

‘There was a third option after all. That they would just kill Josie and I’d never see her again. That she was already dead.’

As Ball Cap was being led to a police car in handcuffs, he called out across the heads of a dozen police officers:

‘I want to talk to you, Anna. Just you. Talk to me, I’ll tell you what I know. Or the police can drag it out of me over the next month or so.’