Becks glanced across with a sinking heart as she saw Judith leaving in her wheelchair. The plan had been for Suzie to get the shredded paper and slip back out of the window before anyone discovered what had set off the fire alarm. But with all of the staff milling about in the car park, how was Suzie going to get out of the building now?

Suzie wasn’t thinking that far ahead. Instead, she was in a panic of fear inside Andy’s office, her senses overloaded by adrenaline, the fire alarm screaming loudly in her ears as she went over to the shredder. It sat on the table by the window that overlooked the High Street, just as Judith had said, and she’d crossed the room and was inspecting it when a fire engine pulled up on the pavement outside, fire officers jumping out with their yellow helmets on.

Suzie dropped to the floor. Bloody hell, she thought to herself, and now the fire brigade have turned up? She only had a matter of seconds before she would be discovered, and she saw that her hands were shaking. She had to make herself go through with the plan. With a force of will, she reached up onto the table and ripped the clear cellophane bag from the back of the shredder. Pulling it down to the floor, she then opened a leatherette handbag they’d also bought that afternoon from the charity shop and yanked out a carrier bag. Becks had stuffed it full of shredded paper that she’d got from her son’s hamster cage. Putting this bag of hamster-shredded paper to one side, Suzie tipped all of Andy’s shredded paper into the handbag and clicked the clasp closed. Next, she grabbed up thick handfuls of hamster-shredded paper and stuffed it into the clear cellophane bag from the shredder until it looked about the same.

But how to re-attach the bag to the shredder?

There was only one way.

Suzie stood up, clear as day, and was relieved to see that there were no fire officers in the High Street looking into the building to see her.

As she re-attached the bag to the back of the shredder, the fire alarm stopped blaring.

Her ears rang from the sudden silence.

Suzie grabbed up her handbag and returned to the window that overlooked the car park, but when she looked out, there was no sign of Judith. And she could see the clump of office workers starting to re-enter the building, marshalled by a fire officer who was holding two blackened pieces of toast in his hands.

Suzie knew her only hope was to leave by the front door before everyone returned to the reception area and discovered her presence. She only had seconds to act, but as her hand reached for the handle to Andy’s office door, she stopped.