But what the hell was he planning to do tonight?

James reached into his inside pocket for his phone, but it wasn’t there. When he checked his other pockets, he made another terrifying discovery. The keys to his house were also missing.

It was obvious to James that the bastard had taken them. But did that mean he was now heading for the house? And Annie?

Panicked, he hurried across the room and grabbed the door handle. But the door wouldn’t open. It was locked from the outside.

James looked at the window behind the desk and reckoned it would be easier to smash that than break down the door. As he searched for something to use, his boot collided with an object on the floor. It was a glass paperweight in the shape of a heart. When James picked it up, he saw that it was smeared with blood. His blood. It was the weapon the priest had used to knock him out.

He threw it at the window and the glass shattered, but he had to use a small statue of Christ on the cross to make an opening big enough for him to climb through.

Once outside, he started running for home whilst praying that he would reach Annie before she came to any harm.

CHAPTER SEVENTY-ONE

Annie was unable to move. She was so stricken with terror that she couldn’t even scream as Father Silver stepped across the room towards her.

‘The others didn’t see me coming, Annie,’ he said. ‘So, in that sense, you’re lucky. You’ll know why you have to die.’

Annie’s eyes shifted back to the knife in his hand. It was long and shiny and looked like a weapon from a bygone era.

‘If it’s any consolation, I’ve let your husband live,’ the priest said. ‘You see, I can’t be sure that he’s a sinner. Unlike you.’

Annie wanted to believe that she was still in bed and that her dream had turned into a vivid nightmare. But she knew she was awake and that it was really happening.

He stopped moving and there was a long, unearthly pause. He’d got himself into a position where he was standing between the doors to the hallway and kitchen. Annie had her back to the wall with the TV and it meant that to flee the room she would have to get past him.

She tried to speak, to ask him if he had lost his mind. But it felt like a hand had grabbed her heart and pulled it up into her throat.

‘Your crime, my dear, was to murder your own baby,’ he said. ‘You should not have done what your father told you to do. You both knew that the Catholic Church forbids abortion, and yet you went ahead with it.’

Annie found her voice. ‘How did you know about that?’

‘Your father came to confession to ask for forgiveness. But by then the damage was done.’

‘But you killed the others, too,’ Annie said. ‘What did they do wrong?’