Until he read the letter again, and grasped that Spencer was dying. Peder had many sources, many methods of accessing people’s private business. Through his various jobs he’d built up a solid network of informants in hospitals and other institutions; he also used Ross. It transpired that Spencer had a brain tumour and was refusing treatment. He had even arranged the date of his death, so Peder decided that fate clearly took care of certain things without the need for human intervention, for which we should all be thankful. However, Peder kept Spencer in mind just in case Ross didn’t work out as his scapegoat, in case he had to abandon his mission earlier than planned, before Spencer died. The last few days had been tricky. Ross had failed to monitor Noah properly, hadn’t realised what steps he’d taken to find his brother, along with his newfound friend Tina. Peder had had to fix that too, check Noah’s emails, keep tabs on his contact with the police. And finally he’d had to stop him when he threatened to go too far. There was a risk that Alex would believe him, and that couldn’t be allowed to happen. Peder had tried to destroy Noah’s credibility, convince Alex that he was a complex, volatile individual who couldn’t be trusted.

It had never been Peder’s intention to kill Noah. He’d only wanted to scare him into silence. He’d explained that unless Noah stopped playing detective, Dan and his family would die, but Noah’s reaction had been totally unexpected. He had been furious, attacked Peder, yelled that Peder had to tell him where Dan was, why he’d taken him. That had enraged Peder – he wasn’t the one who’d abducted Dan!

‘You’re not blaming me for your fucking brother’s misfortune!’ he’d shouted, giving Noah a hard shove. Noah had fallen backwards, hitting his head on the sharp corner of the desk.

Shit.

After that there had only been one way forward: to continue according to his plan. He made as much mess as possible in Noah’s office, making it look as if there’d been a break-in. Finally he took out Spencer’s terrible confession, which had proved a great source of inspiration the first time he read it.