There was the briefest of pauses on the other end of the line.

‘What do you mean you can’t swim? Everyone can swim.’

‘I never took any lessons.’

‘You’ve got to be kidding! Look, then stay where you are. We’ll get past this oak tree somehow. I don’t know how, but we’ll do it.’

Becks ended the call and strode over Tanika, who was in the middle of a phone call.

‘Suzie thinks Judith’s been shot,’ Becks said, interrupting Tanika. ‘You’ve got to get someone to her house at once.’

‘I’ve called for backup,’ Tanika said. ‘And an ambulance. But everyone’s already out on shouts in this weather. It’s going to take time.’

‘We don’t have time! What about the police helicopter?’

‘It can’t take off in a storm.’

‘But Judith’s on her own!’

‘Is there another way to her house other than this road?’

‘There isn’t,’ Becks said and desperately looked about herself for inspiration.

There was nothing.

She was standing on a blocked road, a police car half hanging over the River Thames. A few dozen or so feet away on the main road, the suspension bridge to Marlow sat in the rain as though Judith’s life wasn’t in the balance. And beyond the bridge, an even more elegant presence against the roiling skies, was the church.

Her church.

And it was a Thursday and it had only just gone nine!

‘Wait here,’ Becks said as she headed for the bridge. ‘Back in two minutes!’

Tanika was baffled as Becks started running across the suspension bridge.

Where was she going?

Judith had been lucky.

Although she’d felt Danny’s bullet whistle past her head and blow out the window behind her, it had missed her head by inches.

Danny was just as surprised that he’d missed, and Judith could sense that in the next few seconds he was going to pull the trigger again.

She had to keep him distracted. It was her only hope.

‘It was you who killed your dog, wasn’t it?’ she blurted.

Danny blinked.

‘What?’ he said.

Good, Judith thought to herself. Finally, she’d got him talking.

‘My friend Suzie said that Liz got a vet to kill your dog, but she was only half right, wasn’t she? It wasn’t Liz who got the dog put down. It was you.’

‘So what?’ he spat at Judith. ‘You’ve got no proof, and a dog’s a dog. And I didn’t kill Liz, when are you going to get it?’

‘As it happens, I agree with you,’ Judith said, but Danny wasn’t listening.

‘Because I was in Nottingham at the time, wasn’t I?’