Boydy drags himself up, and we both clamber over the next-door garden’s wall. My heel is sore where I stepped on the china dog, and I stoop to pull a piece out of the flesh. It’s bleeding, but not badly.
Two minutes later, wheezing and moaning, we’re through the door into my backyard, and a minute after that, we hear footsteps pounding up the back lane.
‘She lives somewhere around here. One of these,’ I hear Jarrow say.
But they don’t know which one. We hear them rattling all the back doors up the lane, but none of them opens – and certainly not mine.
No … mine is shut tight. Nothing to worry about there.
All I have to worry about is right behind me.
Gram. She’s standing on the back step, with Lady.
‘Elliot? Oh my goodness, what has happened to you? And where is Ethel? I’ve been worried sick. I was about to call the police. Have you seen the time?’
For a second I think it’s strange that she’s asking where I am … and then I remember.
She can’t see me.