‘What do you think you can achieve here, Richard? If you were going to shoot me you would have done it already.’ The man leered. He seemed calm, which stoked Richard’s anger even more, enough to rob him of his ability to reply. He knew he needed to control his emotions, that his own rage could floor him if it got out of hand. He’d made his captive pull his own chair out into the middle of the room to sit on. Now Richard grabbed another and positioned it so the back was almost against the knees of his target. The gun was suddenly feeling heavier, his chest thumping harder. He was starting to feel dizzy. He needed to ease the pressure. He needed to be strong, to be in control. He used the back of the chair as a rest for the barrel. Now he didn’t need to worry about fatigue.

‘Answers,’ Richard said. ‘You owe me that.’

‘Owe you?’ Nicholas grinned.

‘Answers. You lied to me. Danny Evans didn’t kill my wife, did he?’

Nicholas smiled. He fucking smiled! Richard felt his finger tighten on the trigger as the man changed his seating position, lifting his right leg to rest it over his left like he was sitting outside some Parisian coffee shop. Richard wanted to take that smiling head right off but he needed to wait. He wanted answers first. Nicholas parted his hands, which had been gripping his knee, and gave a sort of shrug. ‘So, you got me. Very impressive, how did you work that one out?’

‘When you forced me to abduct a boy off the street I needed tools. I don’t have weapons at my house, I don’t have the need for them anymore, but I knew Glenn did. I went round to his house. What do you think I found?’

Nicholas still held his smile as he shrugged again. ‘Glenn’s still where I left him,’ Richard continued. ‘Still sitting in his chair, still watching the footage of his best friend murdering Danny Evans. And the knife you used to murder him was there too. The one with the pearl handle that you forced me to hold. It was lying on top when I opened the bin. You’re fitting me up. Danny Evans has nothing to do with me. You wanted him, you wanted his whole family, but you needed to make sure there was someone else in the frame. That someone else was me. And today I was supposed to take the Evans lad to my house. Why might that be? You were going to blame me for him too, weren’t you?’