‘I love it,’ grinned Casey, her whole face lighting up. ‘How about you, Jess? Are you having fun?’

‘Course I am. I’m spending time with you, aren’t I?’ She winked at her sister.

‘I liked the rapids earlier the most,’ continued Casey. ‘They were like the flume ride at Thorpe Park, only better.’

‘That’s because they’re real,’ said Tim. ‘We’ve got another one coming soon. That’s the last one, then it’s just an easy run into Tayleigh, and hopefully a quick pint at The Farmer’s.’

‘I don’t think so,’ said Jean. ‘We’re being picked up by the canoe owner. I’m sure he won’t want to hang about while you have a beer.’

‘He might if I buy him one,’ said Tim, who liked a drink.

‘No,’ said Jean, with a finality that brooked no further argument. But there was a lightness to her tone that told anyone listening that she was just bantering with her husband, and loved him really.

Jess had a boyfriend, Joe. They’d been together four months and had had numerous ups and downs. Jess thought she loved him, although she wasn’t sure, and when she heard the easy way Jean and Tim talked to each other, it made her vaguely jealous.

‘I don’t want this to end,’ said Casey, looking round at the scenery, her eyes lighting up.

‘We can come back any time you like,’ said Jean.

‘Tomorrow?’

Jean laughed. ‘Maybe not tomorrow, but I’m sure we can come next weekend if the weather’s good. Right Tim?’

‘Course we can,’ he answered, turning round in his seat and smiling back at Casey.

Jess felt happy then, for the first time in a while. Things finally seemed to be working out. Casey had left all her friends behind in London, and Jess had been so worried that she wouldn’t settle in up here, but she should have known better. People warmed to Casey. She could settle in anywhere, which meant Jess could now concentrate on getting her own life together, finishing college, and hopefully going off to uni.

‘Tim, can we pull into shore up here? I need the toilet,’ said Jean, who’d had to stop for toilet breaks twice already today. ‘Sorry girls, I’m a slave to my bladder,’ she added, giving Jess a little bit more detail than she actually needed.

‘There’s a spot just up here, look,’ said Tim, pointing to a small sandy strip a few yards across, just upstream on the right.

As they rowed the two canoes over, bringing the noses to a halt in the sand, Jess heard a popping sound coming from somewhere up in the trees ahead. She frowned, wondering what it was, but nobody else seemed to hear it and Jean clearly had more important things to worry about as she scrambled out the back of the canoe and disappeared behind a nearby tree.

‘Does anyone else need to go?’ asked Tim. ‘We’re still a good hour from Tayleigh.’

Casey said she was okay, but Jess was feeling a bit of a twinge and didn’t fancy getting uncomfortable later. ‘I do,’ she said, getting up unsteadily in the canoe and jumping off the end onto the sand, careful not to get her Converses wet. Stretching, she walked up the bank, looking for a tree as far away from Jean as possible.

Which was when she heard the sound of someone coming fast through the trees and turned to see a woman in dark clothing running down the hill towards her, barely twenty yards away, a look of utter panic on her face.

For a moment, Jess couldn’t believe what she was seeing. But the woman kept coming, getting closer and closer, if anything her pace quickening as she caught sight of Jess.

Five yards separated them now.

‘Run!’ the woman snapped, making no attempt to stop, her voice like the staccato crack of a branch. ‘Now!’

Jess wasn’t used to taking orders from someone she’d never met before, especially one who’d appeared out of nowhere, but as the woman ran past her in the direction of the boats, Jess caught sight of two more figures coming through the trees further up the hill, and it looked like one of them was carrying—

Jesus. It was a gun.

Jess had always been a fast runner. At school, she’d excelled in the sprints, and had always been quick off the mark. She was quick off the mark now. Turning in one rapid movement, she sprinted for the boats, already a good few yards behind the mystery woman.

Jean, meanwhile, appeared from behind the tree she’d been using, still pulling up her baggy shorts, a surprised expression on her face.

‘We need to go!’ Jess yelled at her. ‘There are men with guns in the woods!’

‘Oh my God!’ cried Jean, but she didn’t need telling twice, running for the canoe at a good pace for a big woman.

The mystery woman reached Jess and Jean’s canoe first and, as Tim and Casey looked on aghast, she pushed it back into the water, then jumped in, grabbed one of the oars and began paddling wildly. Jean jumped in after her, grabbing another paddle, while Jess, realizing that Tim and Casey were making no effort to paddle backwards into the water, grabbed the nose of their canoe and shoved it into the river as hard as she could.

‘What’s going on?’ Casey cried out, clearly terrified.

‘We’ve got to get out of here, okay,’ Jess answered, trying and failing to stay calm, wanting to pick Casey up and hug her tight, but continuing to push the canoe, which was still hardly moving at all. ‘Paddle, Tim, for God’s sake!’ she yelled.

‘What the hell’s happening?’ he demanded.

‘Just do it.’ With a last big heave, Jess jumped in the boat, pushing Casey down between the seats so she was out of sight and grabbing her oar.

‘Jess, what are you doing?’ she sobbed.

Jess didn’t answer. She was paddling backwards like crazy and looking towards the bank where the two men she’d seen earlier had now appeared on the sand, no more than twenty yards away. One of them, a small guy dressed in black, definitely had a gun in his hand, but the other – a much bigger guy – looked as if he was wearing a police uniform, and didn’t appear to be armed.

‘It’s the coppers,’ shouted Tim, indignation in his voice. ‘She’s running from the coppers.’

‘They’re not policemen!’ shouted the woman in the other canoe, still paddling wildly, and for the first time Jess noticed she had an English accent. ‘They’ve just killed a policeman.’

Tim didn’t sound convinced. ‘What the hell are you talking about? You’re running from them, lass, and no mistake.’

And then the gunman on the bank raised his weapon and pointed it in the mystery woman’s direction.

‘Get down everyone!’ yelled Tim, panic in his voice.

Out of the corner of her eye, Jess saw Jean scramble down in the other boat, almost upending it in the process, while the mystery woman continued to paddle backwards, keeping her head down. Jess didn’t hesitate: she rolled back in her seat, grabbed Casey in a bear hug and the two of them fell to the bottom of the canoe as a shot whistled somewhere overhead.

A second shot rang out but Tim was still in his seat, paddling wildly, managing to turn the boat round so it was facing downriver, and then he too scrambled onto the floor, keeping his head down as a third shot cracked across the river. Except this time it sounded as if it was further away, and Jess let out a very small sigh of relief as she hugged Casey close, feeling the wetness of her sister’s tears in the crook of her neck.

Eleven

KEOGH CLOSED HIS eyes and shook his head angrily. They’d lost Amanda Rowan and now he was in a lot of trouble.

He’d driven the dead cop’s car off the road and concealed it in undergrowth where it was unlikely to be seen unless someone was looking for it. The cop himself was scrunched up in the boot, and by the time anyone found him, they’d be long gone.

Now, as he jogged back up to the four-by-four, keeping his head down, the radio in his jacket pocket crackled into life. It was MacLean, the big cop who’d let go of Amanda when she’d whacked him in the balls. ‘Have you got her?’ Keogh demanded, the frustration obvious in his voice.