Without even glancing over his shoulder, Tommy climbed up into the first coach. Anna looked at the sign on the front: Blue Lagoon Spa. It was certainly the most popular option, she realised, as the majority of passengers followed suit.

Paula was still walking, moving with the serious hikers now, and Anna cocked her head in interest. She wasn’t going to get on a coach then. Hanging back, Anna watched.

There were perhaps a dozen people near Paula. All were dressed in appropriate outerwear and sturdy hiking boots, most with crampons attached. Some even sported goggles and the majority of them had walking poles. They were grouped around a particular man, the trek leader, clearly, who waved his pole in the air, issuing instructions. Anna watched the spike at the end of the hiking stick; imagined felling Paula with a single blow and driving it through her neck.

The group began to move, the man in front and Paula – woefully unprepared Paula – bringing up the rear.

They were pros, Anna thought, smiling to herself. It wouldn’t be long before Paula fell behind.

She shivered with anticipation.

Chapter 22

Before

‘Are you cold?’ my mother asked.

It was unlike her to enquire after my well-being. Ignoring her question, I wrapped my arms around myself in an attempt to stop the shivering. No, I wasn’t cold. My tremors were of excitement, of anticipation.

Tomorrow I was going to Edinburgh.

The last couple of years had been far from easy. I had moved through my final school terms like I was swimming underwater. My body ached constantly with the effort, never having a chance to recover with sleep, because who had time to slumber, what with monitoring my mother’s activities, keeping clear of Carl and his unwelcome advances, making the house as respectable as it could be with two addicts living in it and staying up to date with homework, coursework and exams…

It was all for the end game, the final prize. Edinburgh would lead to a career, and, later, a home that was always clean and neat as a pin, and maybe even a husband who was strong and handsome and able to provide for his family. The opposite of Carl, in other words. Sometimes I thought of Rebecca Lavery and the prize I had stolen from her. Each time I remembered what I had done, I was quick to reassure myself. She didn’t need it. I had seen her – the way she was dressed, the expensive aura she exuded. She didn’t need it. It was my new mantra, to be repeated silently to myself until the guilt passed.

My case was packed. A single suitcase, reflecting eighteen years of living. Eighteen years of no friends, no family apart from my mother. No fun times or birthday parties or celebrations. No love, no tenderness.