‘Are you okay?’ asked Amanda, stopping a few yards above her.

Jess put her hands on her hips and lowered her head, trying to get her breath back. ‘I just need a couple of minutes, that’s all. Then I can keep going.’

‘It’s not that much further to the top. Then it’s all downhill into Tayleigh.’

‘I need a signal on this phone. There must be somewhere round here I can get one.’

Amanda came down and stood beside her. ‘We should be able to get a signal at the top of the hill and, even if we can’t, we’ll be in Tayleigh in just over an hour if we move fast.’ She paused and put a hand on Jess’s shoulder. ‘Look, I know you’re worried about Casey, but she’ll be okay.’

Jess moved away from her. ‘How do you know?’ she demanded.

‘Because it’s me they seem to be after. You know, if you want, you can wait here. I can take the phone, and as soon as I get a signal, I’ll call for help.’

‘No, it’s okay,’ said Jess. There was no way she was going to give up the phone to anyone, not when it was her and Casey’s lifeline. She sat down in the long grass behind a gorse bush, feeling a wave of exhaustion.

Annoyingly, Amanda sat down next to her. ‘Casey’s not your real sister, is she?’ she said.

‘She’s totally my real sister,’ snapped Jess. ‘Not by blood, maybe, but she means everything to me.’

‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it like that. It’s just, you know—’

‘My skin colour.’

Amanda nodded. ‘Yes, that’s what made me say it. I just wanted to talk, that’s all.’ She gave Jess the kind of earnest, patronizing look that a couple of the younger teachers at college liked to give her, as if the fact that she was mixed race made her somehow special, rather than just like everyone else. It annoyed her when they did it, and it annoyed her now.

She sighed. ‘I was adopted at seven. Before that, I had a shitty childhood – more shitty than someone like you could imagine. Then I had a happy childhood until first my mum died, then my dad. Casey moved up here, and I stayed at home in London. That’s it. My story. Satisfied?’

Amanda turned away, hanging her head down between her knees. ‘I’m sorry I asked,’ she said.

Jess didn’t bother replying. She had no desire to be this woman’s friend, not after everything she’d brought down on them.

There was a silence before Amanda spoke again. ‘I didn’t want any of this, you know. I just want to be happy like everyone else. I drifted for a lot of my life, got involved with the wrong sort of men, and then finally settled down and married a man who said he truly loved me. Only it turned out I wasn’t enough for him. He takes a lover, brings her to our own home when I’m not there, and ends up being murdered along with her, and I walk in on the scene. I almost get killed . . .’ She lifted her bandaged arm. ‘And now, three weeks later, having been forced to leave my home forever, I end up being hunted by men I’ve never even seen before. And the worst thing is, I have no idea why they’re doing it.’ She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. ‘No idea at all.’

Jess softened. She’d never been any good at staying angry with people, whoever they were. ‘I didn’t mean to snap,’ she said.

‘It’s okay. I know how hard it is for you, I really do. I’ve lost my husband and my home. Everything I ever strived for.’

‘You don’t have kids?’

Amanda shook her head wistfully. ‘Sadly not. We tried. It just didn’t work out for us.’

‘I’m sorry,’ said Jess, who’d always wanted kids. Four in all. Two of each.

‘That’s just the way it goes sometimes,’ Amanda said with a shrug of her shoulders, but there was disappointment in her voice.

Neither of them said anything for a few moments, but then Jess felt a sudden need to speak. ‘I saw my birth mother murdered,’ she said, not really knowing why she was telling this complete stranger her dark secret, when she’d rarely spoken about it to anyone. ‘I was six years old.’

Amanda stared at her. ‘Jesus.’

‘I was upstairs in bed and I heard my mum arguing with her boyfriend. They were screaming at each other, like they often did, then I just heard my mum gasp and cry out. I can still remember the exact sound she made now.’ Jess paused, shutting her eyes tightly, remembering the terror of that night. ‘I was really scared, but I went into the lounge anyway, because I wanted to see if my mum was okay, and there he was standing over her, and he had his hands round her neck, and he was squeezing and squeezing. I could see my mum’s face. It was turning blue and her eyes were sticking out like they were on stalks, and she was making this horrible, rasping sound. He didn’t even hear me come in. He was just looking down on my mum the whole time with his face screwed up with this expression of just total rage . . .’ She stopped, the memory hitting her like a blow to the head. ‘I didn’t know what to do. I was standing there watching, because I think I was so shocked. Then, the next thing I remember, I ran in and grabbed his arm, yelling and trying to stop him, and he turned and looked at me, and there was this total hate in his eyes, like he was possessed by the devil or something. He punched me in the face. I remember that. It didn’t even hurt, it just felt like this massive shock, and then I was flying backwards. I think I must have been out cold for a bit because the next thing I knew he was gone and my mum was just lying there.’ She frowned, aware of how cold and factual she was making it sound, clinical almost, when in reality it had been anything but. ‘She was dead. I tried waking her up. I shook her. I cried. But she was gone, and eventually I went to the neighbour’s flat, knocked on the door, and told them what had happened.’

Amanda swallowed audibly. ‘I don’t know what to say,’ she whispered.

‘You don’t have to say anything. I told you because, before tonight, it was the most scared I’d ever been. Casey’s only a few years older now than I was then, and I know she’s going to be just as scared out there, and it makes me feel so bad that I’m not there with her.’

‘Come on then,’ said Amanda, getting to her feet. ‘Let’s get to the top of this hill and see if we can get a signal.’ She helped Jess up and they continued their uphill trudge.

Five minutes later they’d reached the peak. It was bare and craggy with patches of heather and ferns dotted about, and the wind was even stronger. Jess knelt down behind one of the heather patches and checked the phone. It was showing a single bar and she felt a surge of excitement as she immediately dialled 999.

The phone rang twice before being picked up at the other end. But the line was cracked and virtually inaudible. Jess could just about make out the operator’s voice, but it was so faint she couldn’t tell if it belonged to a man or a woman. ‘Hello? Hello?’ She shouted into the phone as a gust of wind blew hard across the peak, all but drowning out her voice.

The phone bleeped three times and went dead, and Jess dialled a second time, her fingers shaking as she found the call button. ‘Come on, come on,’ she whispered.

The phone bleeped again. Now it wasn’t even connecting, and when she checked the signal, it read No Service. She cursed angrily, holding it up and moving it around, trying desperately to get some kind of reception.

But it was no good. Somehow they’d lost it, and on the top of a fucking mountain of all places! Jess felt the tears come then – tears of frustration, anger, and sheer, blind grief.

‘It’s okay,’ said Amanda, coming over and putting out her arms. ‘It’s okay.’

This time Jess allowed herself to be held and cried into her chest while Amanda stroked her hair in silence.

But Jess wasn’t the type of girl to let weakness take her for long, and after a few seconds she moved out of the embrace and wiped her eyes. ‘Come on,’ she said. ‘The sooner we get to Tayleigh the better.’

Amanda nodded. ‘I think there’s a farm somewhere in the next valley. Maybe we can get help there.’