The merest hint of a smile appeared on Davies’ bruised and battered face. ‘Did you say this morning?’

‘What’s so fucking funny?’

The thin smirk on Davies’ face gradually became a broad, full-blown grin as he ignored his pain, endorphins providing a natural high. He wanted to laugh. He so wanted to laugh. But the big man was looming over him. ‘I flew into Cardiff airport at twenty to nine this morning. My old mum paid for a holiday in the sun. You can check the flight schedule. It’s over there on the sideboard with the boarding pass next to the clock. It’s all there in black and white.’ He raised a finger to his face. ‘I told the nutter who did this to me the same fucking thing when he stopped beating the crap out of me so I could speak. You’re pissing in the wind, Detective. I wasn’t even in the country. If a child’s missing, I couldn’t give a shit. It’s got fuck all to do with me.’

Lewis crossed the room, flinging Davies’ computer forcibly to the floor and then stamping down on it with the heel of a black leather brogue. ‘Oh dear, sorry about that, Peter, I’ve always been a bit on the clumsy side. Buy another one, and I’ll be back. And start planning your move. To somewhere without a nearby school or playground. Somewhere you’re less of a risk to the community. You’ve got four weeks from today. If you’re still here after that, I’ll be back. And the local hard cases are going to find out exactly what and where you are. You won’t last very long after that. Not in one piece anyway. They’ll tear your balls off and stuff them down your throat until you choke.’

‘You can’t do that. You’re a copper; there’re laws, rules you have to follow. I’ll make a formal complaint. I’ll report you. You’ll be out of a fucking job.’

Lewis laughed again, this time with genuine amusement. ‘I’m a decorated officer with over twenty years of service, and you’re a nasty, dirty little nonce cunt who’s served time on a sex offenders wing. I looked up your record, gross indecency, indecent assault, thousands of indecent images of children, many in the most extreme category, including torture. One of your victims was four and another six. Complain to whoever the fuck you want to. Who are they going to believe, you or me? If you’re still here in four weeks, I’m coming for you. That’s my rules, that’s my law. Suck it up and accept it, nonce. It’s the only choice you’ve got.’

12

‘Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. It has been eighteen years, nine months and three days since my last confession.’

The pencil-thin, grey-haired priest peered through the screen in the semi-darkness of the confessional, his gold metal-rimmed glasses perched on the very tip of his nose. ‘That seems very specific if you don’t mind me saying so. Is there something in particular that brings you back here after all this time?’