They went to the back of the house and peered carefully in through the windows, hoping to find Ormond at home. If not, they’d break in anyway and wait for him. He was in there, walking to and from a room off the kitchen, carrying papers and boxes, packing files into a suitcase. Will and Liam exchanged glances and nodded. They knew that if he was packing files away, he must know the game was almost up, and that he needed to tidy up what he could. That also meant that he was very unlikely to answer the door. So they rapped on the patio doors off the kitchen.

Ormond froze, but relaxed when he saw who it was. The relief soon turned to anger at the audacity of them turning up to his private address. He opened the door.

‘What do you two want? How dare you come to my house! My wife could have been here.’

Liam and Will looked at one another: it was confirmation that they were alone.

‘Sir, we didn’t know what else to do. Porter knows everything. She’s spoken to the solicitor Keira was seeing, and she’s got solid forensics against the Cotton brothers for both murders.’

‘How solid?’

‘Concrete.’

‘What about the plant?’ His voice was becoming loud and his face was turning red.

‘It never happened. We reckon one of the informants turned and is now working with Porter.’

‘Have you taken care of him?’

‘We can’t find him, sir.’ Though Will used the formal title, he spoke through gritted teeth. Ormond didn’t notice.

‘Porter has to be taken out.’

‘Sir?’

Ormond looked at the two men and smiled. ‘This is all going to be fine as long as she is taken care of. Come on, lads, are we getting cold feet? You have to do it; you know what will happen if you don’t.’

‘She’s a respected officer, sir.’ Will appealed to reason, but he could feel the situation slipping from his grip.

‘I can change that. I can prove her incompetence and arrogance. No one will miss her.’

‘Sir, we know where the Cotton brothers are. Why can’t we cut ties to them and let the law do its job? They go down, as they deserve, and we come up with a plan.’

‘A plan? For what? It’s there in black and white in that solicitor’s office. You fucked up!’ Ormond was roaring now, and pointing at them.

‘Sir…’ Will tried to prolong the discussion. Liam was clenching and unclenching his fists. Will couldn’t believe that they were being blamed for what Ormond had done. It was clear that no matter what they said, he was cutting himself loose.