They ran for a few hundred yards, stumbling in the darkness, Roddy supported between the other two. Adam’s lungs burned, his chest heaved and his legs ached. At the brow of a hill he looked back and could just make out the silhouette of the barn below. It wasn’t in flames. Maybe Joe had the fire under control.

‘We need to work out a plan,’ said Molly.

‘What plan?’ said Roddy, gasping. ‘We just keep fucking running.’

Molly shook her head. ‘We need to think.’

‘Maybe he’s busy with the fire,’ said Adam. ‘Maybe he won’t come after us.’

Even as the words came out of his mouth, Adam knew they were bullshit.

‘He’ll come after us,’ said Molly. ‘He can’t let us live now, even if he wanted to before, which he didn’t.’

‘This is a total clusterfuck situation,’ said Roddy.

‘Quite,’ said Molly.

‘I can’t believe he killed Luke,’ said Adam, shaking his head and staring at his feet.

‘I know,’ said Molly. ‘But we can’t think about that now, we have to concentrate on getting out of this in one piece.’

‘What do you suggest?’ said Adam.

Molly looked back at the barn, getting her breath back. ‘Once he gets the fire sorted he’ll come after us. He’ll have guns and he’ll use the car. Which means we have to get off this path, it’s too exposed. He can find us too easily.’

Adam turned the torch on and swept it around them. There was just snowy heath and moorland in every direction.

‘And we can’t use the torch,’ said Molly, ‘except in emergencies. It’ll only flag up our position.’

Adam switched the torch off.

‘It would be good if we could find some trees,’ said Molly, scuffing her feet in the snow. ‘We’re leaving tracks.’

‘We’re fucking dead,’ said Roddy.

‘Don’t say that,’ said Adam.

‘We are,’ said Roddy. ‘We can’t move fast, we’re in the middle of fucking nowhere, we’re leaving tracks in the snow, it’s pitch black and freezing, I’m bleeding to fuck, and we have no idea which way to go to get help.’

‘Not entirely true,’ said Molly. ‘Remember, I said there was a farmhouse near the American Monument, at Upper Killeyan? I’m pretty sure it’s that way.’

She waved off to the left in an unconvincing gesture.

‘If we make it there, we can get help. If there’s no one in the place, we can use the phone.’

‘Shit,’ said Adam. ‘We should’ve taken the police radio from the table, shouldn’t we? Used that to get help.’

Molly shook her head. ‘We can’t use a police radio, we’ve no idea who’s listening in, whether they’re on Joe and Grant’s side or not. Joe used the radio to contact his pick-up guys, remember?’

‘So if there’s no one at this farmhouse and the phone works, who do we call?’ said Roddy.

‘Ash.’

‘Ash?’ Roddy sounded incredulous. ‘She’s our big escape hope?’

‘Screw you,’ said Molly. ‘She’s my sister, and if I call asking for help, she’ll come get us.’

‘What about that cop you mentioned to Joe?’ said Adam.

‘Eric?’ Molly thought for a moment. ‘I know he won’t be messed up in any of this, but he’s only one old guy, I don’t know how much he can do. He could maybe come get us, but I wouldn’t want him taking on Joe.’

‘Is there any chance of a mobile reception anywhere out here?’ said Adam. ‘Should we have got our phones from the barn?’

‘No point,’ said Molly. ‘We’re further from Port Ellen than we were at the crash site, so if we couldn’t get anything there, there’s no chance out here.’

She looked into the darkness in the direction of the American Monument.

‘The only problem with getting to this farmhouse is that there are loads of sea cliffs over that way as well.’

‘Fucking great,’ said Roddy.

‘But if we’re careful, we’ll avoid them.’

‘In the dark without the torch? Great plan.’

Molly stared at him in the gloom. ‘You got a better one?’

Roddy glared at her for a long time then lowered his head. ‘No.’

‘Right. How are we all doing?’

Adam nodded. ‘Good to go, I think.’

Roddy sighed. ‘Fucked, but no more than when I woke up with half a fucking Audi in my shoulder.’

‘You can move OK, yeah?’ said Molly.

Roddy snorted sarcastically. ‘Think so.’

Adam looked at Molly. ‘And how are you?’

‘Fine.’

‘I mean, after … you know. Back there.’

‘I said I’m fine.’

‘What a fucking cunt,’ said Roddy.

‘Yeah, well,’ said Molly.

They heard a noise and looked down the path. The snow was falling thicker now, but they could see a spread of light splaying out from the barn as the door opened. There was the metallic click and clunk of a car door opening and closing, followed by a pair of headlights suddenly blazing, beaming across the moor. The engine revved.

‘Time to move,’ said Molly. ‘Any questions before we get going?’

‘Yeah,’ said Roddy, ‘how the fuck did we get into this mess?’