An attack, an intruder in her suite, and wasn’t that just so ironic given all the things she had done herself? But whoever was behind her was still coming, up close, shoving at her now, a painful push in her spine.

The knife – the vegetable knife for the lemons that went into the gin – where had she left it? She had cleaned it after she had used it on Mark. If she could just make her way back inside and pick it up…

The thoughts ran through her mind in a millisecond, and she put her hands out, an instinctive gesture to catch at the railing of the balcony and steady herself so she could turn and confront her attacker, dodge past and get back inside.

But something wasn’t right, and it took her precious seconds to realise as her hands searched blindly for support that the railing wasn’t there.

She threw her arms back, hands up, staring at the gaping hole in front of her. The pressure on her back lessened for a second before the intruder came at her again. This time the hands were on her shoulders, moving up to grip the back of her neck. She gasped as her head was pulled back, her body almost bent in two… and she found herself staring into Paula’s face.

The world tilted strangely, and for a moment she wondered if this was a hallucination. How could Paula be here, in her suite? She was back in Ellidavatn, in the lake, frozen and dead under the ice.

Was it possible she had underestimated this woman?

‘Did you think you could take my life?’ Paula hissed in Anna’s face, and even now there was minimal anger showing; just what appeared to be a regretful mask of sadness.

She shook her, and an involuntary groan emerged as Anna’s bones seemed to rattle in her body. There, there was the fury. Not in Paula’s face, but in her body, in her strength.

Anna tried to still herself, to think clearly, to remember who this woman was in comparison to herself. She was nobody.

And in spite of the pain, she laughed. ‘You can’t hurt me,’ she said, a little of her old self coming back as she taunted her. ‘You’re not built for it. It’s not you. It’s not in you.’

Paula narrowed her eyes. Still, she spoke softly, quietly, almost conversationally. ‘You have no idea of who I am or what I can do.’

Anna felt herself shifting as Paula moved her arms. Suddenly that gap in the railing was an awful lot closer. She eyed it, uneasy now. Her hands crawled along the floor, seeking something – anything – that she could use to defend herself. Above her, Paula spotted the movement. She lifted her again, oh so easily, and Anna felt herself falling backwards, the world now upside down, the white-painted concrete floor rising up to meet her.