Judith lay on the carpet, winded, pain shooting up her arms where she’d broken her fall, but she knew she had to get back to her feet, she had to get to the gun before Danny.

She dragged herself up onto one knee and looked for the gun, but it had gone. Where was it?

Danny was holding it in his hand and pointing it directly at her face.

Judith knew it was finally over for her. But she wouldn’t give Danny the satisfaction of seeing her fear, she was going to look her murderer square in the face.

It was because her eyes were open that she was able to see the roar of teeth and claws as a wild beast flew in through the broken window before landing on her paws and then bounding up in one leap and knocking Danny over.

Judith realised that the beast was Emma, and she’d pinned Danny to the floor!

‘Help!’ Danny screamed, the gun skittering across the parquet from his hand as Emma’s teeth grabbed hold of his wrist and then shook him, trying to break his arm.

Moments later, the door banged open and an exhausted Becks burst into the room. Taking in the scene, with Emma growling in Danny’s face, Judith off to one side, Becks saw that a Luger pistol was directly at her feet, so she picked it up.

Three drenched police officers entered right behind Becks, saw Danny on the floor and turned to Judith.

‘Is that your dog?’

‘No she bloody well isn’t,’ a stentorian voice called from the window.

They all turned and saw Suzie standing outside in the rain, duckweed in her hair.

‘That’s Iqbal’s dog,’ she said.

At the sound of Suzie’s voice, Emma let go of Danny, but kept growling at him as the police officers pulled him to his feet and roughly handcuffed him.

Judith suddenly felt woozy and leant against an armchair.

‘Are you okay?’ Becks said, going to Judith.

‘I will be in a minute.’

Becks looked over at the three police officers as they marched Danny out of the room.

‘Danny Curtis was the killer?’ Becks said, amazed.

‘One of three,’ Judith said.

Tanika wheezed into the room, out of breath.

‘Okay, that was too far to run,’ she said.

‘You ran here?’ Judith asked.

‘It’s a long story,’ Becks said, ‘but we had to. It took us ages to move a tree that was blocking the road.’

‘Only thanks to Becks’ quick thinking,’ Tanika added. ‘She got hold of a rope and her car to move it, but the tree wouldn’t budge. We were completely stuck. And then the most amazing thing happened. People started arriving, coming out of their houses, streaming over the bridge.’

‘They did?’ Judith asked. ‘Why?’