Biggs’s head is still in my freezer. I’m keeping my options open. At the moment, my theory is that Shannon Luxford and Armana Black are working together, with Black possibly using the Fred alias. If there’s not enough evidence against Black, a severed head hidden somewhere in her home would go a long way towards a guilty verdict.

Once there are no body parts hidden anywhere in my house, maybe I can get it professionally cleaned. Get rid of that bad smell, which is back. I could smell it from outside.

I’ve got nothing to do now. Normally I’d be eating. It’s weird, having nothing to keep me occupied while the remains are dissolving. The boredom makes me hungry.

Going cold turkey is going to be harder than I thought.

I’ll take a walk, I decide. That sounds like something an adult might do. A non-cannibal, non-virgin adult with a girlfriend. I check the mirror—no gore to be seen—and get dressed.

I’m about to put the phone Warner gave me in my pocket when I hesitate. It’s not a good time to do this. But there will never be a better one.

I dial.

Warner picks up herself, which is unusual. Her flunkies must be indisposed.

‘Blake,’ she says. ‘What an unexpected surprise.’

‘Is there any other kind of surprise?’

‘I guess not.’

I can hear a man screaming in the background. The screams echo, like Warner is in a warehouse, standing quite a long way from the screaming man.

‘I quit,’ I say.

‘I didn’t quite catch that,’ Warner says. ‘Which gives you a second chance to decide what to say.’

‘I quit.’

Dead air trickles down the line for a while. The screams have stopped.

‘The FBI is not going to break me,’ she says. ‘I know about their little task force. If you’ve decided to help them, it won’t go well for you.’

‘That’s not it.’

‘Then what? You angling for a raise?’

‘You were right,’ I say. ‘I don’t have the stomach for this work. I thought I did, but I don’t. I’ve dealt with the last of the clients you sent to me. But I don’t want more.’

‘Well,’ she says, ‘that is … disappointing.’

I can hear the man sobbing in the background.

‘You don’t need to send anyone after me,’ I say. ‘I’m not a danger to you. What little I know, I can’t ever say.’

More sobbing.

‘You let Indigo quit,’ I say. ‘The stripper you told me about, the one who hit a client. And nothing bad happened.’