Anna edged towards her until she was close enough to touch. Paula looked around, her mouth suddenly dry as she realised she couldn’t see the shoreline any more than she could see evidence of the harbour. She swayed as the ice beneath her feet seemed to shift again, her arms automatically going out towards Anna for support. The other woman didn’t move, and reluctantly she forced her hands down by her sides again.

‘You heard what I said. And it means you’ll have to go, of course.’ Anna’s eyes glinted dangerously in the twilight. ‘There’s not room for both of us.’

Run.

The instruction was brutally clear in Paula’s mind, but her feet refused to move. She looked down at them, then across the lake, desperately seeking dry land, but her sense of direction had deserted her.

‘You killed that man.’ She didn’t know why she said the words; it was as if she couldn’t hold them back, but for some reason she wanted Anna to know that she knew exactly what she’d done.

‘William, yes. And people before him, and after him, too.’

Paula was aware that her mouth was open, that her lips were flapping uselessly. Once again, she wondered if she had heard wrong.

‘Who?’ she breathed.

With a sudden motion that had her flinching, Anna whipped off her backpack and spun it around to clutch it in front of her. Pulling off a glove, she opened the zip and upended the bag. The contents toppled onto the ice. Paula flinched at the impact.

When she was sure the ice wasn’t going to crack, she let her gaze land on the small pile of items. She drew in a sharp breath at the sight of the waxed jacket and lifted her eyes to meet Anna’s.

‘You,’ she said. It wasn’t a question, but Anna nodded anyway.

‘I opened the gate. I saw it was unlatched the night before. I got the keys from Mark in case it had been locked. He was a crew member on the ship. Did you ever meet him?’ Her eyes were far away, a smile in them that flickered for just a moment before fading. When she looked back at Paula, her gaze was blank and hard and… dead. ‘That’s his phone.’ With the tip of her boot, she nudged the mobile. It slid soundlessly along the ice before coming to rest against the jacket. ‘He won’t be needing it any more.’

The words, loaded with hidden meaning, were more terrible than if Anna had described what she’d done with him.

‘Wh-where is he?’ But even as the question left Paula’s mouth, she realised she didn’t want to know.