Chapter 24

As Anna thrashed her way along the footpath that led back towards the harbour, she ripped the backpack off her shoulders. Anxiously, she glanced at her watch. It was well past the hour the Ruby Spirit should have left. She was short on time now, and though she was exhausted, and indeed felt rather faint, she pushed onwards.

She tore the zip open as she half ran, half stumbled through the densely packed pine trees. Out came Paula’s iPhone, and she tossed it over her shoulder. It landed with a small thud on the path behind her, but she kept on going, no time to bury things now, but confident that nobody else was going to tread this path. The master keys were next, the ones she had taken from Mark. No need for them any longer. Over her shoulder they went too, along with the plastic sheeting, the spanner and the jacket that she had used to conceal her identity the time she had attacked Paula on deck, Mark’s phone in the pocket.

With the bag now empty, she flung that aside too. There was nothing in it that would lead to her, nothing incriminating whatsoever.

She let out a rebel yell as she pushed onwards.

She was almost in the clear.

Practically home and dry.

On her way to start her new life.

On the main road, out of the woods and far enough away from Ellidavatn, Anna spotted a taxi rank. She hurried over to it, patting her pocket and pulling out a bundle of notes, relieved that they had not been lost in her day’s adventures.

‘Skarfabakki harbour, please,’ she said.

The driver nodded at her in his rear-view mirror, and as he pulled away, she leaned back against the seat.

He didn’t attempt conversation, and for that, she was grateful. She would have hated to have to be rude to him. If anyone asked questions later, people remembered things like that. In the back seat, she pulled up her scarf and covered her mouth with it, her hands going to her hat, ensuring her hair was concealed. Happy that she was unidentifiable, she lowered her eyes, and remained with her head down for the rest of the journey.

‘Just here is fine,’ she said when they pulled up on the main harbour road.

She handed over the fare, shook her head when he tried to give her the change. As he drove off, she walked the last few hundred yards to the harbour.

The Ruby Spirit was still there, a small cluster of people hanging around the walkway from which they had exited hours earlier.

Tommy, she saw, with growing excitement, was talking with the captain, and beside him… She heaved a sigh as she saw Patrick Duane.