A loud noise from behind made Ellie jump: a hammering at the door.
‘Open up! Police!’
Ellie knew she had no choice. She tied the sheet around her waist and looked down to see her sister urgently waiting.
‘Was any of it true?’ she asked Fredrik. ‘All that stuff about your dad?’
‘Every word,’ he said.
There was no time to say anything more as Ellie could hear a battering ram being hurled against the door. The last she saw of Fredrik’s face was as he pulled up the sheet. He gave her a small smile, then Abby was urging her down the steps and across the garden. They raced to the car, throwing their things in. Abby started the engine and they sped away out of the village.
In seconds, in the wing mirror, Ellie could see two unmarked cars chasing them, blue lights flashing, sirens wailing.
‘Shit,’ said Abby as they raced over a small bridge, landing hard.
Winded, Ellie grabbed the dashboard. This was it, surely.
‘They’re going to get us, Abs,’ she said.
‘Over my dead body,’ her sister replied.
‘Maybe we should just hand ourselves in. Deal with the consequences.’
Abby looked at her, aghast. ‘Are you joking? No. This is not how this ends.’
She pushed the car even faster and Ellie clung on. The country lanes were narrow and they hurtled around corners, blind as to what was coming on the other side. Spartan trees and bushes lined the road, beyond which fields stretched into the distance, dotted by the odd farmhouse. Abby had managed to gain a bit of distance and for a few seconds they lost the two cars behind them. They neared a turning and, without warning, Abby flung the car left, into an even narrower road. She continued at speed, both girls watching anxiously in their mirrors.
‘Have they gone?’ asked Ellie urgently.
‘I don’t know, I don’t know,’ cried Abby.
Then they saw the police cars hurtle past the turning.
‘Oh my God,’ said Abby, not quite believing what she’d witnessed. ‘We did it. We got away!’
Ellie broke into a smile. ‘They didn’t see us.’
Abby punched the air. ‘Yes!Yes!’
‘Maybe you could tell me next time you spin around a corner so I can make sure my stomach comes with me,’ said Ellie.
Abby was laughing, buoyed by their success.
‘Where did you learn to drive like that, anyway?’
‘Never driven like that before in my life. God, that was fun,’ Abby added, surprised at herself.
‘Fuck,’ said Ellie, suddenly sombre.
‘What?’ Alarmed, Abby glanced in her rear-view mirror. There was nothing.
‘I thought I saw—’ Ellie stopped abruptly as they both glimpsed a police car gaining on them.
‘Oh my God,’ wailed Abby, putting her foot down. ‘Where did he come from?’
Up ahead, a farmer was opening a gate leading from his field into the road. Behind him was a herd of russet-coloured cows.
‘Abs!’ said Ellie, pointing.
