Her feet went out from under her, and she landed painfully on her knees.

Dead end! her brain was screaming. She scrabbled helplessly on the ice as she tried to stand.

Something, some piece of knowledge imparted by Tommy, came to her. Ice holes, drilled by fishermen to enable them to continue their trade while the lake or river was frozen. Too wide to jump, but no time to go around it.

She wasn’t sure if she heard, felt or sensed Anna’s presence, but there she was, gliding up behind Paula, the ice hole not frightening her.

No, for Anna, it was a perfect opportunity.

Her hands shot out, fingers roughly grabbing Paula’s neck as she brought up her leg and jammed her knee into her back. Then she pulled Paula’s head back and kicked it with all her might.

Paula’s breath came out in a whomph sound, a sigh that seemed to draw every ounce of air from her lungs. There was no pain, not really, not yet. Just a deep sense of shock, dark and desolate as the hole in front of her.

The light, already fading from the day, dimmed rapidly, a vignette in her vision. She felt her head lolling and stupidly heavy, her chin nodding towards her chest.

She slumped backwards into the arms of her persecutor.

Anna worked quickly, down on her knees now, pushing the other woman across the ice. She had thought she was unconscious, but as they reached the lip of the hole, Paula’s hands shot out to grip the edges of the ice, her fingers fluttering one minute, still the next.

Semi-conscious, Anna realised. She straddled Paula’s back until she was kneeling on her shoulder blades, then raised her right leg again and this time stamped on Paula’s hand.

Paula shrieked, her fingers splaying wide as she let go of the ice. With one hand free, it was easy to tug the other one away; then, in a single fluid motion, Anna leapt up and grabbed the back of Paula’s coat, heaving her forward into the black water.

She wheezed as she tried to get her breath back, knowing she only had a few seconds before Paula’s body would rise to the surface again. The shock of the water had temporarily revived her, she saw, and she came up kicking and screaming, arms flailing. Anna angled herself in preparation, and as Paula’s face rose, mouth open as she sought air, she landed a boot on the crown of her head. Before Paula could recover, Anna went down on her knees and grabbed her hair, pushing her head down, down, down until no part of her was visible above the ice-cold water. Then, with the last of her strength, she shoved her backwards.

She stood up and shook her hands. Next time Paula came back up, she would hit the thick ice above her. No air, no escape hole.