‘Something in the garden. Or somebody. There’s been some red foxes around lately. I think they have an earth up by the rugby club somewhere.’

Katie stood up and went over to the window. She hadn’t yet drawn the curtains and the light from the bedroom was shining out into the garden. She shielded her eyes with her hand to cut out the reflection of her own face, and it was then that she saw something moving on the left-hand side of the garden, by the rotary clothes line. Both Barney and Foltchain were barking hysterically by now, and she could hear them jumping up and down.

She saw something moving again, and she thought the grey waterproof sheet that she used to cover her bicycle might have blown loose and was flapping in the wind. But why would that set the two dogs off barking? She hesitated for a moment before she drew the curtains, and when she did she saw a man in a grey hoodie appear out of the shadows behind the clothes line and head quickly towards the garden’s side gate.

‘Intruder!’ Katie gasped. Kyna stepped back out of her way as she ran out of the bedroom, along the hallway and pulled open the front door. She ran around the side of the house, into the rain, just as the man in the grey hoodie was coming out of the garden gate.

‘Stop!’ she shouted at him. ‘You’re under arrest!’

The man came blundering towards her and collided with her next to her two dustbins, which both tipped over. He pushed her back against the wall of the house, but she hit him hard on the side of his neck with a nippon kempo blow that sent him staggering sideways, and then she kicked him in the groin. He grunted and doubled over, and as he did his mobile phone dropped out of his pocket and clattered on to the path.

‘I said, you’re under arrest!’ Katie panted. ‘Kyna! My gun’s in the top drawer, in the nursery! Fetch it for me, can you?’