There was silence from the other end of the line.

I went on. ‘Eleanor is talking to the police now.’

‘Oh God!’ she said shakily.

‘Suzie,’ I said urgently, not wanting her to go into a complete panic. ‘As he’s asked for Eleanor, go and tell him that she’s gone to stay with her boyfriend in London. He might then go away.’

‘I’m not going up there again,’ she said with real fear in her voice.

‘All right,’ I said calmly. ‘If you can leave the house without him seeing you, then go straight away. Go round to the pub, and stay there with the others.’

‘OK,’ she said rapidly. ‘I’m going now.’

‘Good. But go quickly and quietly,’ I said. ‘Are you talking on a mobile phone?’

‘Yes,’ she said.

‘Then keep talking to me as you leave the house. Do it now.’

I could hear her breathing and also the squeak of a door being opened, and then it slammed shut.

‘Bugger,’ she said to the world in general.

‘Quietly,’ I hissed into the phone, but I don’t think she heard me.

There was the sound of her feet crunching on the gravel as she ran down the path.

‘Oh my God,’ she screamed. ‘He’s coming after me.’

‘Run,’ I said.

I didn’t need to say it. I could hear Suzie running. Then the running stopped and I heard a car door slam.

‘I’m in my car,’ she said breathlessly. ‘But I haven’t got the damn keys.’ She was crying. ‘Help me,’ she shouted down the phone. ‘Oh my God,’ she said, her voice again in rising panic. ‘He’s walking down the path.’

‘Can you lock the doors?’ I said to her.

‘Yes,’ she said. I heard the central locking go click.

‘Good,’ I said. ‘Does the horn work?’

I could hear her bashing at the button but there was no noise.

‘It won’t work,’ she cried, still bashing. It obviously needed the key in the ignition.

‘Where’s Eleanor Clarke?’ I could hear Julian Trent shouting, his voice muffled by the car doors and windows.

‘Go away,’ screamed Suzie. ‘Leave me alone.’

It was like listening to a radio drama – all sound and no pictures. The noise of Trent banging on the windows of the car was plainly audible and I could clearly visualize the scene in my mind’s eye.

‘Go away,’ Suzie screamed at him again. ‘I’ve called the police.’

‘Where’s Eleanor?’ Trent shouted again.

‘With her boyfriend,’ shouted Suzie back at him. ‘In London.’

Well done her, I thought. It went quiet, save for the sound of Suzie’s rapid shallow breathing.

‘Suzie?’ I asked. ‘What’s happening?’

‘He’s run off,’ she said. ‘He’s disappeared round the corner of the hospital. Do you really think he’s gone?’

‘I don’t know,’ I said. ‘But stay in the car. We’ve called the police. They are on their way. Stay in the car until they come.’ I hoped that Trent hadn’t disappeared round the corner of the hospital simply to get his trusty baseball bat, so he could smash his way into Suzie’s car.

‘Who the hell was it?’ she asked me.

‘I don’t know,’ I lied. ‘But he definitely wasn’t Eleanor’s brother. I think he may have been someone on the lookout for women.’

‘Oh my God,’ she said again, but without the urgency of before. ‘He might have raped me.’

‘Suzie,’ I said as calmly as possible. ‘Be happy he didn’t. You’re fine. Describe him to the police and they will look after you. Ask them to get the others back from the pub to stay with you.’

‘But I don’t think I want to stay here,’ she said.

‘OK, OK,’ I said. ‘You can do whatever you please.’

By now she had calmed down a lot. Vets were obviously made of stern stuff.

‘The police are here.’ She sounded so relieved.

‘Good,’ I said. ‘Give Eleanor a call later, after you’ve spoken to them.’

‘OK,’ she said. ‘I will.’ She sounded quite normal, almost as if she was now rather enjoying the situation. It must be due to the release of tension, I thought.

I hung up and passed the phone back to Eleanor.

‘Why didn’t you tell her that it was Julian Trent?’ she said, almost accusingly.

‘We don’t absolutely know for certain that it was him, even if we are pretty sure that it was. The police are bound to be in touch with us soon because it was my phone you used to call them, so they’ll have the number, and you must have had to give them your name.’

She nodded.

‘If we want, we can give them Trent’s name then as a possible suspect,’ I said. ‘But I certainly will not be telling them that I think he went there intending to threaten you so that I would purposely lose the Mitchell case.’

‘No,’ she said with conviction. ‘Nor will I.’

Good girl, I thought, again.

Next, I called my father.

‘Hello,’ he said.

‘Hi, Dad,’ I said to him. ‘How are things in sunny Devon?’

‘Boring,’ he said. ‘When can I go home?’

‘Soon,’ I said. ‘I’ll let you know when. But please stay there for a bit longer.’

‘Why?’ he said. ‘Why do I have to stay here?’

I hadn’t explained everything to him about Julian Trent. Perhaps I should have, but I hadn’t wanted to worry him. These days he tended to live in a more gentle world of pottering about in his garden and playing bridge with his neighbours. Baseball-bat wielding maniacs were not his typical concerns.

‘I’ll tell you everything next week,’ I said. ‘In the meantime, can’t you go off on a drive somewhere? Go and visit Dartmoor or something.’

‘I’ve been there before,’ he said unhelpfully. ‘Why would I want to go again?’

I gave up. ‘Just stay in Sidmouth for a few more days,’ I said sharply.

‘Don’t you tell me what to do,’ he said with irritation.

‘Please, Dad,’ I said more gently.

‘You’re a strange boy,’ he said. It was his usual answer for everything.

‘Maybe,’ I said. ‘But please, Dad, stay there. It’s important. Please just do as I ask.’

‘All right,’ he said reluctantly. ‘At least you’re paying.’

Indeed I was, and the Victoria Hotel in Sidmouth wasn’t cheap. I’d had to give them my credit-card details over the phone, and send them a signed fax guaranteeing the full amount.

With the knowledge that Julian Trent had been in Lambourn only fifteen minutes previously, Eleanor and I felt quite relaxed as we made our way into the hotel with the stuff from her car, which was then taken away to the hotel car park.

I closed and locked the room/cell door with us securely on the inside, and felt safe for the first time in hours. Then I called down to the front desk and ordered a bottle of red wine and some glasses. Eleanor and I may need to be locked up in a prison cell for the weekend, but it didn’t mean we couldn’t have a few of life’s little pleasures to while away the time.

When the room-service waiter delivered the wine, we ordered some food as well. I then asked the receptionist to ensure that I wasn’t disturbed and that no calls were put through. ‘Certainly sir,’ she said.

‘So tell me,’ said Eleanor finally. ‘Why do you suddenly think that I am now in danger from Julian Trent when I wasn’t before?’

‘Because since the witness summonses were delivered, he now knows for sure that I won’t do what he wants. I think he would try to use you as a lever rather than as just an implied threat.’

‘And it seems you are right,’ she said. ‘So now what?’

I glanced around our prison-secure room. It had been created out of three old cells knocked together, complete with the high-up barred windows that had been intended to give the prisoners only light rather than a view. Thankfully, a modern bathroom had been added during the conversion so ‘slopping out’ was no longer required.

‘Eleanor,’ I said, turning to look at her face. ‘No one, not even you, has really understood what sort of people we are dealing with here, although I think you might now be beginning to. We are not living here in some television drama where the blood is fake and the characters mostly behave in a fairly decent manner. This is a story of blackmail and murder, where seriously nasty people would as easily kill you as they would a fly.’ She stared at me with wide eyes. ‘But I don’t intend to let them do either.’