She became immediately aware that they were coming after, and heard one of them yell out, “Hey, Ginger! Stop, bitch. Tariq, you get the car.” Then she felt a sudden sharp blow high on her shoulder. It almost felled her, and she stumbled and cried out in agony as the pain spread throughout her upper body. She had not thought they were close enough to get her, but one of them had hit her with an iron bar or a baseball bat or some such thing. For a moment, she lost her footing and staggered this way and that, like a newborn lamb, trying desperately to remain on her feet, to keep moving, her center of balance wavering. If they caught her now she knew she’d be dead.

Somehow, she managed to keep going, get upright and find her footing, her rhythm, again. Now all she had to do was speed up and keep running through the pain that was clouding her vision.

She crossed a main road and still heard them behind her, though she thought they were receding into the distance. She had no idea how many of them were following her. She put on speed again and narrowly dodged a car, felt the draft of it whizzing by. She wasn’t sure if it was them or not. Then she zigzagged through back alleys and narrow streets of grim terraces until she couldn’t hear anyone behind her anymore. Her shoulder throbbed like hell and her breath came in rasping gasps, but she kept going, around a corner, through a ginnel, even jumping a fence at one point. Her old hurdles coach would have been proud of her, she thought. She was almost certain there was no one behind her now, that she’d lost them, but she wouldn’t slow down just yet. She had an idea of where she was, could see another main road ahead at the end of the narrow street she was running on, some shops, cars rushing by. She knew where she wanted to be.

Finally, Gerry crashed through the front doors of Wytherton Police Station and immediately saw three or four officers come to the counter to see what the hell was going on. There was no way she could go any farther without the inner door code, but the chase was over. Her pursuers had long since given up. She rested her palms on the counter and took a deep breath. She was aware of the door opening beside her, and just before she fell to the floor, of strong hands grasping her, voices shouting out, and a pain sharp as a knife cutting through her shoulder.