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talking in a low voice with Rick. Clearly he had spent the night here. I thought of Sam – warm, thoughtful, hard-working Sam – and felt a flush
of anger on his behalf. What was Annie doing letting some muscleman she hardly knew get so close to her?
    On the other hand, I had to admit that at least Rick seemed to calm her down a bit.
    My phone beeped. My heart lurched as I opened the text, but it was only Mum.
    Sorry didn’t talk earlier. Will call u later. Hope revising going well.
    I sent a short reply.
    A few minutes later Annie appeared in my bedroom doorway. She glanced round. I followed her gaze to the bed. I’d laid Madison’s pocket dolls across the pillow and the sight of them
all lined up in their little outfits brought a lump to my throat. Tammy, the doll she’d been playing with on the beach, nestled in the centre of the group. Her shoes were still missing and
her plait was still untied. I hadn’t been able to bring myself to tidy her up.
    Madison will do it when she comes home , I kept saying to myself. Don’t jinx things by doing it now.
    ‘I just came to say I’m aiming to get to the bank as soon as it opens,’ Annie said in a croaky voice. Her blue eyes looked red and sore from crying.
    ‘Would you like me to come with you?’ I said, throwing back the bedcovers.
    Annie offered me a shaky smile. ‘Thanks, Lauren.’
    Another hour dragged by. I went down to the kitchen and made some tea. I woke Jam, who had slept on the sofa in the living room, and soon after that Rick and Shelby appeared too. Rick offered to
cook bacon and eggs, but none of us could manage any breakfast.
    We didn’t want to hang around the house – so we were all standing outside the bank when it opened. Annie went in alone to collect the cash. She emerged half an hour later with a
backpack in her hand.
    ‘I can’t believe so much money fits into something so small,’ she whispered.
    I nodded. The bag did look tiny considering it contained two million pounds.
    ‘Come on,’ Rick said, looking round as he spoke. ‘Let’s get in the car and get back home. It’s spooking me out standing here with this much cash.’
    The holiday home kitchen was normally light and airy, with sunshine filtering in through the garden door and the large window over the sink. Today, however, Rick had drawn the curtains to avoid
anyone in the surrounding houses peering in as Annie opened the backpack to show us the bundles of fifty-pound notes.
    ‘I can’t wait ’til that money is out of the house,’ Rick muttered. ‘It’s giving me the heebie-jeebies having it here.’
    My phone beeped.
    It was her .
    I read the text out loud:
    ‘Tennison Bridge, North Norbourne. Eleven am. Come ALONE.’
    ‘That’s on the way to the beach where we had one of our picnics last week,’ Annie said. ‘D’you remember? We stopped off to take a picture.’
    I nodded. The bridge had been small and pretty – made of grey stone and set over a sloping, tumbling brook. Annie had insisted on a photo of the three of us. Shelby had made a fuss, of
course, but eventually we’d stood in a row and smiled. I’d been bored . . . missing my friends from London . . . missing Jam. Only Madison’s chatter had cheered me up.
    ‘How can the kidnappers be so sure we’ve got the money already?’ Shelby said.
    ‘They were probably following us to the bank,’ Rick said.
    I shivered. Then checked the time. Just over an hour to go.
    ‘I really don’t like you going on your own,’ Annie said.
    ‘The bridge is on a road,’ I said. ‘There’ll be other cars driving past.’
    ‘Which is weird, don’t you think?’ Shelby interjected. ‘Why would the kidnapper risk anyone seeing what she was doing?’
    ‘I’ll be with Lauren.’ Rick squeezed Annie’s shoulder and she smiled gratefully up at him.
    ‘It says come alone .’ I pointed to the text.
    ‘I’ll stay fifty metres away,’ Rick said. ‘Hide behind a tree or something.’
    ‘So will I,’ Jam