The traffic choked its way slowly across the New Forest. The heat-softened tarmac of the two westbound lanes hidden under countless cars and trucks that stretched back for miles, and from the air resembled a massive metallic slow-moving snake, glistening motionlessly in the relentless July sun, basking in the heat.
Ellie Harrison gazed nonchalantly out the rear passenger side window of her father’s Peugeot Estate. Pressing her forehead against the warm glass she watched absently as they crawled past a grubby old white Ford Focus. The heat and lack of movement had proven too much for the tatty old car and it now sat slightly askew, part on the road and part on the grass verge. Its bonnet was up and a gradually increasing puddle of water leaked from the engine bay as if the car had needed t
