I swung around, my eyes rapid-fire jumping from car to car, across the railway lines, scanning the area for any sign of an observer. There was no one except a parcel-laden woman, ten cars down. My hands shook with the same rapidity as my heart and that swirling bilious feeling churned in my stomach. Jesus, this was too much. It was beyond someone’s stupid idea of a joke now. Had they followed me here? Or had they chanced across my car and decided to put the wind up me? Whatever way, it was working.

Something had to be done, but what? If I told Smithy or the guys, they’d be on at me for not reporting it earlier. Could I take care of it? I checked the ground, but there were no obvious footprints in the gravel and dust mix. I could fingerprint the wiper blades and maybe get lucky.

‘Jesus,’ I yelled out loud, as my cellphone rang and my heart rate jerked up even more. A searing pain shot through my head and throbbed in my temples, resonating with the heavy and rapid thuds of my heart. My chest constricted and, as I gasped for oxygen, I wondered if this was what it felt like if you were having a heart attack.

I fumbled the phone out of my pocket, flicked it open, saw who it was and managed a gulped ‘Paul?’ before shock and physiology caught up with me and I retched over the ground next to the tyre. I spat a few times before daring to turn my attention back to the call.

‘Sam? Sam? What’s going on? Are you alright? Sam? Answer me.’ I could hear Paul’s concerned voice well before I got my ear to the speaker.

‘Ugh, sorry, no, shit.’ Another spit. I leaned hard against the car, then changed my mind and crouched down on my haunches, head between my knees.

‘What’s happening? Where are you?’ he asked.

‘Sorry, I just got a fright, that’s all.’

‘That’s all? It sounded like you were throwing up. Are you okay?’

God, how much did I tell him? I didn’t want him charging in and trying to fix it all for me like some knight in shining armour, though part of me realised this had gotten way out of my control, and maybe it was time to call in some outside assistance. I took a shuddery breath and confessed.

‘I’ve had a little problem, and it just got beyond creepy.’

‘What do you mean?’

So I told him, about the first note I put under the windscreen of the crap-heap car, the response, the further notes and now this.