‘Hi Ella, I’m Sergeant Moss, you’re in shock and we are just going to take a minute to sit and get a warm drink inside you.’

Roman placed her hand in his and led her to the middle section of the boat. Another police officer handed Ella a drink whilst Sergeant Moss sat opposite her and twizzled the knob on the top of his radio. Roman never let go of her hand.

‘I can confirm Ella Johnson is found and we are going to be heading back to the mainland in a couple of minutes. Please can you have an ambulance waiting on shore to take Ella to the hospital?’

‘I don’t need to go to hospital, I’m fine.’ All Ella wanted to do was go home and sleep off this nightmare.

‘You are going to hospital and I’m coming with you,’ reassured Roman. ‘No arguing.’

‘I’m too cold to argue and my head hurts.’ Ella lifted her hand to her head and felt the stickiness of the blood. ‘My head really hurts.’

‘You’ve got a nasty cut and will probably need stitches.’

Ella closed her eyes, feeling dizzy and a little nauseous.

‘Try and keep your eyes open Ella, we need you to stay as alert as possible.’ With the boat rocking up and down on the water, Roman slipped his arm around Ella’s shoulder. ‘Rest on me but keep those eyes open.’

‘I’ll try.’

‘You will try, because I’m not sure whether you’ve got the gist yet, Ella Johnson, but I kind of want you to stay around.’

‘Sir.’ Roman looked up at the sound of the police officer’s voice. ‘Do you know how to drive this boat?’ asked Sargent Moss.

‘I do.’

‘Okay, can I ask you to take the helm? We will sit with Ella whilst you get us back to shore.’

As Roman walked into the driver’s cabin, something caught Ella’s eye on the floor. She bent down and picked up a mobile phone. She stared at the screensaver – a picture of herself and Alex wrapped up in each other’s arms on their very first date. It seemed to her he was completely disturbed and had no clue what was real or not. And whilst she might have lost her inheritance, tonight she had very nearly also lost her life.

Chapter Fifteen

Ella woke up and for a second wondered where the hell she was, until she saw the wires protruding in every direction and saw that she was hooked up to a machine at the side of her bed, bleeping away.