‘Oh, no – don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying he’s not a danger – I just don’t think he’s the one who abducted the girl, or Nick’s brother. What was his brother’s name again?’

‘Tim,’ I say.

‘Hmm …’ Davina’s brow creases. ‘T.’

‘What?’

‘The letter … on the postcard,’ she mumbles to herself.

‘I don’t know what you’re rattling on about, Davina.’ I check the time again. ‘Shit. It’s been eleven minutes now.’

‘Richard said to leave, drive to the police station if he wasn’t back.’ Davina leans forward in the back seat, the top half of her body close to mine. ‘You don’t think we should do that, do you?’

‘No. No I don’t.’ I scramble over to the driver’s seat. ‘Come on, Davina. Climb into the passenger seat. I’m not sitting here like a lemon waiting for the men to come back. I want to see for myself what’s happening.’

Chapter Ninety-Two

Amber

‘Hang on, hang on.’ Davina grabs hold of my arm and pulls it back, stopping me from starting the car engine. ‘I’m not sure we should make such an entrance, do you?’

‘What do you mean?’ Exasperation is audible in my tone.

‘Let’s not announce our arrival by screeching tyres and blazing headlights. We should be sneakier than that.’

‘But we might need a quick getaway – extract the men and escape.’

‘Seriously, Amber – we need to keep our heads here. We should quietly creep around the back of the pub to find out what’s going on. We have the upper hand, then – and if we need to get help, we can go back to the car. If we drive it around there, there’s no telling how muddy it is and while that track looks wide enough for a car, we don’t know for how far. We don’t know exactly where the men are. We could get stuck …’

‘Okay, okay. I get your point. You need to give me my phone back then. I don’t have a torch – Richard’s got the only one.’

‘I don’t have your phone. Richard took it from me.’

‘What? Why?’

‘Well, I don’t know – he thought I was some weirdo, obviously.’ Davina widens her eyes dramatically at me.

Even in this moment of worry, I find myself smiling.

‘If the cap fits,’ I say, giving her arm a playful thump.

‘Come on, then. Let’s do this.’

We get to the end wall of the pub, then I poke my head around the corner first. I need to figure out who is where.

‘Well?’ Davina whispers.