She in turn digested what she saw – the shower cap on his head, the rubber gloves, the plastic bags on his feet, her missing green cashmere scarf around his neck…

And the black handgun with the silencer attached.

All registered in the space of a fraction of a moment.

Dale shook his head and closed his mouth as he gathered himself.

Bailey had less than one second to react. From memory, she recalled that the doorway to the en-suite bathroom was situated directly behind her.

Dale raised the gun, the long bulky silencer swinging into position, the black mouth of the barrel pointing directly at her.

Clutching Frank’s daughter tightly to her shoulder, she launched herself backwards into the en-suite bathroom and pulled the door shut with her other hand.

WHUMPF. A bullet crashed through the wood of the door next to her head and hit the tiles on the wall, shattering them with a sharp crack. Isabel screamed.

With her back against the door, Bailey sank to the floor, pulling Isabel down with her.

WHUMPF. Another shot smashed through the door where her head had been just moments earlier. Splinters of wood tumbled into her hair.

WHUMPF. WHUMPF. WHUMPF.

Three more shots in close succession, stitching a series of jagged holes through the thin wooden panels of the door just above her.

Then silence. Just the sound of her ears ringing, her own sharp breathing and the faster panicked breathing of the little girl she was holding in her arms. The stink of gun smoke wafted through the holes in the door.

Bailey reached up to the small latch lock on the inside of the door and flipped it closed. Better than nothing.

‘I don’t know how the fuck you managed to escape,’ she heard Dale say. ‘But this time you’re not going to.’

‘You’re not going to get away with this, Dale,’ she shouted back.

‘Oh yes I will. I always get away with it. I’m sure I’ll work it out somehow. I’m quite creative, you know. Let’s see… You came here in a state. I mean… look at you. And then you shot them both. And then shot yourself in a fit of remorse. How about that? Well… it’ll have to do.’

‘It’s over, Dale. You’re nicked,’ she called out, playing for time.

A brief pause. ‘Oh yeah? How are you going to manage that without your warrant card?’ She could hear the mocking tone in his voice, and she could imagine the mocking glint in his eyes.

‘Consider this a citizen’s arrest,’ she shouted.

She heard him laugh. ‘You really do confound me, Bailey. You just don’t know when to give up, do you?’

WHUMPF. Another shot punched through the door, this one lower down, just by her shoulder. She jumped in shock. Isabel yelped. Bailey had to do something. Now.

‘Coward!’ she yelled.

He laughed contemptuously.

Her mind raced. What was he going to do next? Was he going to force his way into the bathroom? Probably not. Because that would put him too close to her. And he knew she was a jiu-jitsu expert. And he knew she just might get lucky and overpower him.