Surely it was a case of just sticking the knife between her ribs and that was that.

Fucking copper. Served her right. The sooner she was out of the picture, the better. The last thing he needed right now was some interfering policewoman jeopardising his illicit revenue stream. He had considerable gambling debts to pay off and the loan sharks were pretty unforgiving when it came to late payments. That’s how he’d got mixed up in this whole affair in the first place – to subsidise his gambling habit: the horses, the dogs, a bit of poker, a bit of blackjack, in fact just about anything that you could place a bet on he did. He blamed his wife, to be honest. If she’d have just stopped bloody nagging him about his spending, he’d probably never have got involved in any of this.

Anyway, here he was and he had a job to get done. The policewoman had to die.

Of course, it went without saying that the main reason she had to die was because if he got caught he knew that a spell behind bars for an ex-screw would be an exceedingly unpleasant experience. He felt sick with fear at the very thought of it.

He shook off the nausea and peered around anxiously. He eyed the CCTV camera situated by the stairwell at the end of the landing. He wasn’t too worried about that though. He knew that no-one was watching them. That was because he was the one who was supposed to be manning the control room tonight.

‘Hey!’

He spun around. It was Poppy, peeking from the open door of the cell he had just let her into.

‘Get a move on!’ he hissed.

‘Come here!’ she whispered.

‘What is it?’

‘Just come here. Quickly!’

He swore under his breath and ran to the cell.

He stopped in the doorway. Poppy stood at the far end of the cell pointing at something on the floor in the corner.

‘Look,’ she said, beckoning to him.

He stepped inside the cell to take a closer look.

And then something hit him hard over the back of the head.

Chapter 105

Amber didn’t mind working the night shift. Some of the others found it a bit spooky patrolling the prison at night, especially down here in the basement. But she had never believed in ghosts or anything like that. And what didn’t exist couldn’t hurt you, right?

She padded down the dingy corridor, idly trailing her fingers along the wall, causing tiny flakes of dry paint to chip off and flutter to the floor. Looking down, she noticed that her shoelace was beginning to come undone. She stopped and knelt down to retie it.

And that was when she heard the noise.

She froze and tilted her head to listen.

It had sounded like a whisper.

But that was impossible seeing as no one but her was supposed to be down here at this hour.

She knelt there motionless for a few moments longer, straining to listen. But all was quiet.