His dad’s lawyer had argued last night that there wasn’t enough evidence to charge him for any crime, and they’d have to release him today. Jordan simply could not remember what had happened. All he recalled was Liam pulling at him, and crawling away from Adam’s body.

‘They’ll have to prove that you put the blade into him, and with Liam Brook confessing that he did it, they’ll have a hard time forming a case.’

‘I wish I had done it,’ he’d said.

‘Jordan!’ His father had broken down.

‘There’s no shame here, Jordan. Any jury will be sympathetic to the strain you’ve been under, and it’s been a very public strain.’

‘I wanted to kill him. He confessed to killing my mother.’

‘Think about Millie when you say that.’

Jordan could have reached out and strangled his father for using brazen blackmail, but it worked. The death of Adam Cotton was redemption; further torturing Millie would be utterly selfish and unnecessary. He had no care for his own skin: he would let the law decide.

The lawyer explained that the Crown would have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he was in sound mind after the brutal murder of his mother and had planned the execution for some time. ‘Brook’s confession provides reasonable doubt, as well as your memory loss due to PTSD.’

‘But I’d brought two knives along; doesn’t that look a bit suspicious?’

‘You were alone and confused, and bravado fed your desperate need for attention after the loss of your mother.’

It was bullshit, but Jordan could see where the lawyer was going with it.

‘Adam Cotton was a lowlife murderer and drug dealer, while you’re a high-achieving, law-abiding boy who lost his mother, in a very public manner, four days ago.’

‘And that makes it OK?’

‘This is about not further splintering your family when it has been through enough. If you were charged – and I doubt you will be, because the CPS tends to stay clear when there is reasonable doubt – no juror would want to feel responsible for putting you away when another Adam Cotton somewhere else could randomly stab an innocent woman to death.’

‘What about Jason?’

‘He’s broken under interrogation and confessed to the other murder, saying that Adam was instructed to kill a second woman to draw attention away from the real target: Keira Bradley.’

Thomas winced and hung his head. The lawyer put his hand on his shoulder.

‘I’m sorry, Tom.’

‘Mum was collateral damage,’ said Jordan.

‘Jason is looking at life for murder. As is Adam Cotton’s accomplice.’

Thomas had been shown photos of the second man responsible for his wife’s murder and he was merely a boy. It was heartbreaking. His defence was that he was high on ketamine at the time.