As drunk as Lenny was, he wasn’t so far gone that he didn’t take in what was going on around him, and it took Reggie and Barton a few seconds to restrain him. He was begging now, his fear making him almost incoherent. He was forced to sit on an old wooden kitchen chair and he was then restrained. He felt the gag being forced into his mouth, then Ray Donovan was duct-taping his mouth tightly. Lenny was absolutely terrified now and he felt a warm trickle as he wet himself. He was drunk, but he sobered up quickly as he saw what he had got himself into. Ray was humming as he put a light to a small blowtorch and looked his enemy straight in the eye.

‘You, Lenny, won’t be raping anyone again. I can promise you that much.’

Chapter One Hundred and Twenty

Big Lenny had been missing for two days and Lesley Scott was at her wits’ end. She had swallowed her pride and, finally, here she was at her daughter-in-law’s house. As she stepped over the threshold she had to admit that Sharon looked very pale and wan.

She followed her silently through to the big kitchen that overlooked the back garden. It was a pleasant room and the garden itself looked wonderful. Lesley thought of all the good times she had experienced there with her son and her grandsons. She was not including Sharon in any of her reverie; Sharon was now the enemy as far as she was concerned. In a way she had always been that. After all, she had taken her beloved son from her at a young age. Sharon seemed to breed controversy and trouble. Now she had bewitched her husband, her own father-in-law, and therein lay all the hurt and upset.

Sharon sat at the wooden table and waited patiently for Lesley Scott to seat herself. Lesley was eyeing her, and Sharon could feel the controlled jealousy coming from the woman in invisible waves. Sharon noticed that she was holding a rosary in her hands, and fingering it absently. She could imagine all the prayers and demands that were being sent heavenwards by this woman before her. Lesley set great store in her relationship with God. She felt she had unlimited access to the man in question and that she lived her life by His lore. Hypocritical old bitch that she was.

Sharon waited patiently. There was no way she was going to start this conversation. Lesley Scott seemed to understand this, and she was thrown by the girl’s calmness and detachment.

‘You know why I’m here.’

Sharon still didn’t answer her; all she did was shrug her slender shoulders indifferently.

‘I want to know where my husband is.’

Sharon shrugged once more. ‘I don’t know and, quite honestly, I don’t care.’