‘Don’t listen to them, Clarissa,’ Dudley warned her. ‘They’re nothing but common criminals. They tried to torture me for my safe combination.’

Clarissa looked at him and shook her head. ‘But I heard what you were saying just now. How could you say those things if they’re not true?’

Dudley’s last and most desperate shred of hope was that she hadn’t overheard any of his confession. Now that was blown away. ‘It wasn’t supposed to happen like this!’ he sobbed. ‘You weren’t supposed to know!’

‘You said you arranged for her to die. You said she was drugged. But I don’t understand. Our Annie was killed in a car crash.’

Wolf shook his head. ‘That was no car crash. He just used his power to make it look like one.’

As she slowly woke up to what she was hearing, the pain in her eyes was hard to look at. She ran trembling hands down her face. ‘I’m very confused. What’s going on?’

Ben said, ‘Maybe you should ask your husband what really happened to your daughter, Mrs Dudley.’

Dudley started to cry. ‘I-I can’t tell her. Don’t make me!’

‘No,’ Ben said. ‘Actually, I think we will.’ He picked up his weapon and put the muzzle against Dudley’s head. ‘Go on, tell her.’

‘It wasn’t me!’ Dudley sobbed. ‘They forced me to do it!’

His wife shook her head. ‘Who forced you to do what? Tristan?’

He blubbered, ‘You have no idea what these people are like, what they’re capable of. It’s a religion. A twisted, vile religion. They’re totally insane.’

‘And you’re right in there with them, matey boy,’ Wolf said.

‘No!’

Clarissa Dudley asked, ‘What religion?’

‘Your husband and his so-called Brothers worship things that shouldn’t be worshipped,’ Ben said. ‘They make blood sacrifices to their gods, for their own entertainment and career advancement.’

She screwed up her face in confusion as though she didn’t know what he was talking about. Denial. ‘Sacrifices?’

‘Human ones,’ Ben said. ‘People die. Deaths get covered up. Made to look like something else.’

As rigid as a girder she gasped, ‘You can’t mean … Annie?’

Ben nodded. ‘I’m afraid it’s true, Mrs Dudley. We have evidence.’ Though the last thing in the world he wanted was to show her.

She stared at her husband. ‘Tristan? Talk to me!’ Seeking reassurance, as if all this might just be some terrible, horrific dream that he could make go away.

Tristan Dudley looked like a cornered animal there on the ground. A twisted look of hatred came over his face and burned in his eyes. ‘I’m not going to deny it any more. Why should I?’

‘Oh, my God. It’s true?’