No, he was just going to keep firing shots through the door until they hit her. After all, it was a small bathroom and the odds were in his favour. As she recalled, the gun held fifteen bullets. He’d used two on Frank. He’d fired a further six at her. That left him with a maximum of seven more. But could she and Isabel both survive seven more shots in this small confined space?

She looked around desperately. There was no window in this en-suite bathroom. It was an internal room. No way out. They were trapped. Fuck.

WHUMPF. Another bullet crashed through the door, whizzing past Bailey’s ear to blow apart a bottle of shampoo standing on the edge of the bath. The bright green liquid splattered across the bathroom, spraying over both of them.

Isabel looked at Bailey, petrified, her hair flecked with globules of shampoo. The little girl appeared to have gone into a state of silent shock.

‘Get in the bath and lie down,’ whispered Bailey. The bath was made of metal and with luck it would deflect gunshots.

Isabel scampered across the bathroom and got into the bath.

Bailey swallowed and looked around wildly for anything that might help to get them out of this pickle. Keeping low, she clambered over to the cupboard beneath the sink. Wrenching open the door, she started to pull out the contents, tossing them onto the floor next to her. A few bars of soap. A bottle of shower gel. Some scented candles…

She pulled out a hairdryer and held it up to look at it. Could this be of use in some way?

WHUMPF.

The hairdryer literally exploded in her hands as the bullet smashed it out of her grasp, slivers of plastic flying up into her face.

‘Oh fuck…!’ she gasped, toppling backwards, blinking in shock.

She regained her balance. Glancing at the ruined hairdryer lying on the floor, she suddenly remembered something her father had talked of. As a health and safety inspector, his interest in those matters had inevitably tipped over into domestic life and he was forever lecturing her and her mother about risks in the home. The bathroom was one of his special concerns, in particular, the dangers of electrocution. He’d explained that shaver outlets were deliberately designed to have a very low voltage. But the light socket, on the other hand, was as dangerous as any other light socket and, as he’d explained to her on multiple occasions, that was why you should never change the light bulb in the bathroom while there was still moisture in the air as that would increase your chances of accidentally electrocuting yourself.

She looked up at the light socket. It was her only chance.

Wrapping the hairdryer lead around her right fist, and holding the remains of the hairdryer in her left hand, she yanked the lead with all her might, pulling it right off the appliance. Then she ripped the plug off the other end of the lead. Using her teeth, she bit the rubber coating off both ends to expose the copper wires inside.