The white landscape turned dull and grey in the setting sun. The world shifted to a scene from a black-and-white movie. A slim finger of smoke guided me forward. It had to be from the fire in the Northern Lights cabin, the only thing keeping my grandma from freezing to death. I pushed the snowmobile to its limits. The elements worked against me. The gusts of wind ripped at my snowsuit and battered the snowmobile. My arms ached from staying my course. Snow peppered my goggles, and at times, the scene ahead was dot to dot – and wiping the spray made it worse. I was terrified by the icy obstacles thrown up at us at top speed, but I was in control. All Mackenzie could do was hang on.

I could see the cabin through the trees. I remembered how Mackenzie and I had danced on that roof. It seemed light years ago.

I gasped as the smoke dwindled into puffs. How long did I have until Grandma froze to death? My cheeks burnt from the cold. My fingers and toes were numb even though they were tucked in the Winter Wonder Resorts thermal gear.

When we reached the cabin, I skidded to a stop. Mackenzie and I were off the snowmobile before it stopped moving. We lunged for the door. I jerked the keys out of my pocket, and accidentally flung them into a nearby snow drift. I fumbled again and again trying to pick them up with gloved hands. My fingers were tingling with cold and shaking with fear. Mackenzie brushed me aside. She removed her gloves and unlocked the door. I rammed it open like a defensive tackle sacking the quarterback.

Grandma was hunched in a wooden chair that was positioned right in front of the fireplace. She was dressed in her designer red snowsuit, gloves and boots.

“Grandma!” I shouted as I dived to her side. She didn’t move. Shauna had tied her wrists to the arms of the chair, and her legs were tied together.

“Grandma,” I whispered as fear and sadness gripped my chest.

An icy puff escaped her lips. “Chase?”

A hot flash of relief swept through my body. She was alive. While I untied Grandma, Mackenzie stoked the fire until it was blazing again.

“Shauna,” Grandma whispered. “It was Shauna.”

“We know,” I said.

“She’s been captured,” Mackenzie said and gently hugged Grandma. “Everyone is OK.”

I rushed around the cabin and collected every blanket and towel I could find. The sun had set and the temperature was dropping. I positioned the couch in front of the fire and wrapped us up with Grandma the centre of a Mackenzie and Chase sandwich. My dad had always told me to use body warmth as well as fire, shelter and clothing. He wasn’t going to believe me when I told him about our adventure in the Arctic Circle. I might have to delete a few details – like finding dead bodies buried in the ice, being chased by a killer, nearly falling into the frozen lake… Actually there wasn’t much about the last few days I could tell him.

We sat in silence, letting the warmth and relief soak in. After a long while, Grandma looped one arm around each of us. “Looks like you two disobeyed me again.”

“I think our punishment should be that you have to hang out with us for a long, long time,” Mackenzie said.

Grandma squeezed us in reply. I think she realized how close she’d come to not being with us for a minute longer. We filled her in on the rest of the story and waited for help to arrive.

Police sirens and lights changed the pitch black outside the cabin to a disco. We returned to the lodge in time to see Shauna being taken away in handcuffs. She opened her mouth to say something. I wondered if she would apologize for almost killing Grandma. But she didn’t utter one syllable. Was she sorry for what she’d done? I wondered if her revenge had made her feel better. Grandma gave Shauna a sad smile. Tears streamed down Shauna’s face. It was so cold and the situation so desperately sad I thought her tears might freeze like that for ever.

The police ushered us into the lobby where everyone was gathered. All eyes zoomed in on us. People cleared the way for us to take the prime location on one of the lobby’s many couches.

“These guys are the real heroes,” Toby told the police officer who was interviewing him. “They are the ones who figured it out and caught Shauna.”

“We’ll need statements from all of you,” the police officer said.

Fear zapped me. No one could know Mackenzie’s real story. She was still presumed dead. I could see in Grandma and Mackenzie’s eyes they were thinking the same thing.

“How did you get here?” Grandma asked the police officer. “I thought the roads were closed.”

“Someone pulled strings with headquarters and you became our first priority,” one police officer said.

“And some mystery man had cleared a path from the Winter Wonder Resort to the main road,” another officer added. “I’m not sure how he did it.”

“She,” Mackenzie muttered. We knew who that mystery woman was – Mackenzie’s mum. We scanned the lobby. I nudged Mackenzie and nodded to the figure in the silver snowsuit slipping to the back of the crowd.

Mackenzie locked eyes with her mum. Thanks, she mouthed and gave a sneaky wave as Marilyn slipped out of a side door and out of her daughter’s life … for now.

“You girls go to your room,” Grandma told us with a wink. “I’ll talk to the police.” She was going to have to cover up our involvement again. We’d have to be erased from any official reports or media coverage.

For once, I didn’t mind being sent to my room. We were exhausted but buzzing. It was as if the excitement from the day had electrified my blood. Mackenzie flicked on her computer. I plugged in my phone. Normal everyday things felt strange after everything that had happened.

My phone bleeped with a message. That’s when I remembered the email I’d sent to my mom. It couldn’t be from her, but I checked anyway.

With a strange mix of excitement and dread, I looked at my messages. How could I be experiencing so many opposite emotions? If it wasn’t her, I’d be relieved and disappointed. If it was her, I would be happy and scared. Would she tell me to leave her alone? Did she want anything to do with me? And what if she said she missed me? How would that feel? I didn’t miss her. How could I? I’d never met her.

I tapped the unopened message.

Charlotte,

I was overwhelmed to receive your message.

My own mom didn’t know that I hated being called Charlotte. She was overwhelmed. That could be good or bad.

I hope this is only the beginning of our correspondence. I want to know absolutely everything about you. Please write back as soon as you can.

I hated that tears were welling in my eyes. I didn’t want those few words to mean so much, but they did. Maybe I could have some sort of relationship with my mom after all.

But her message ended with the strangest line…

See you soon! Love, Mum

What did that mean? I couldn’t travel to England until it was safe for Mackenzie, and Mom wasn’t getting released from prison any time soon.

A knock on the door made me jump.

“It’s Ariadne,” she called through the door.

I shut off my phone. Grandma definitely wouldn’t like that my mom had emailed me. Grandma already had enough to deal with. I’d keep my correspondence with Mom a secret for now.

Grandma, Mackenzie and I piled into one bed. “I’ve handled everything with the police. Your names will be kept out of it.” She was hugging us again. “What would I do without the two of you?”

“You’d be a human icicle by now,” I blurted and immediately wished I hadn’t.

Mackenzie and Grandma burst out laughing. I couldn’t help but join in. We had survived and it was ridiculous and crazy and for some reason really, really funny.

“I think you girls deserve a holiday,” Grandma said after our laughter had died down to giggles and then sighs and then a weird silence.

Mackenzie and I groaned. “I’m not sure we can survive another holiday,” Mackenzie said.

“Where’s your spirit of adventure?” she asked but I could tell exhaustion was kicking in. I was a million years younger, and I was getting more and more tired by the minute. Only now could I feel the hundreds of bumps, scrapes and bruises I’d sustained over the last twenty-four hours.

“I’ve got it,” she said with a yawn after a long while. Our eyes were drooping with sleep. “We’ll go to Kuriosity Kingdom.”

“In Florida?” Mackenzie asked. “I’ve never been to the United States.”

After all the weird things that had happened in the Maldives and the Arctic Circle, I was ready to go somewhere that spoke my language and where I knew how the world worked. “I’ve never been to Kuriosity Kingdom,” I said. Dad thought amusement parks were silly. He had enough action and adventure in real life when he was in the navy. On vacation he wanted rest and relaxation.

“It’s the most sparkly and magical place on the planet,” Grandma said her eyes closed in sleep. “What could possibly go wrong there?” she murmured and then began to softly snore.

Mackenzie and I smiled. We were thinking the same thing. Danger followed us everywhere we went. But we would survive no matter what the world threw at us as long as we were together.

Sara Grant serves as the Patron of Reading at The Broxbourne School in Hertfordshire. A Patron of Reading (www.patronofreading.co.uk) is an author, poet, illustrator or storyteller with whom a school forms a long-term attachment. Sara works closely with the school and its dedicated, creative and enthusiastic librarians to promote reading for pleasure and create a genuine reading culture in the school.

As part of her role, in the spring of 2016 she launched the school’s first creative writing competition. Nearly one hundred and fifty students participated. The students were asked to write a 500-word mystery inspired by Sara’s Chasing Danger series.

The competition was steep with murder and mayhem from around the globe, but Jessica Webster’s exciting tale, titled “The Saboteur”, won by a nose! She created a satisfying mystery with twists, turns and surprises – and that’s not easy to do in a 500-word short story.

Congratulations, Jessica!