‘I’m good at it. You don’t need to have any concerns. The layout would have looked rather dramatic, I can imagine, certainly on seeing it for the first time. But much of that was for forensic reasons. The plastic sheeting, the material of the ropes, the positioning of the shotgun; even the shot was more wadding than shot as it’s so much easier to collect. It was all designed to allow me a quick exit once you had made yours.’

‘But there was so much … mess.’

‘There was. The client insisted on the shotgun. I tried to talk him into something a little more clinical, a different method entirely in fact, but he wanted terror. He wanted a man to sit in silence and wait for his fate. To wait for you and to know what that fate was going to look like the whole time. What you saw is what I came up with.’

‘Where is he? Olsen, I mean?’

‘You’re not a fan of the local news, I see. They have already reported a washed-up body.’

‘News? What do you mean?’ Danny suddenly sat straighter. The man opposite him reacted by showing his palms.

‘Calm down, Mr Evans! It’s all exactly as was meant. Again, the client was rather insistent. He wanted him dumped in the sea like a piece of rubbish. Again, I might have had a different idea but it’s not a terrible option. It allows for the limitation of forensic opportunities and—’

‘The sea! And it’s on the news!’ Danny spun to look around, to make sure he was still out of earshot. He leaned in anyway, his words now contained within a hiss. ‘Don’t you take him right out and weigh him down?’

‘Back to the movie references?’ The man grinned now, wide and smug, and Danny had to resist lashing out at it. His smile was quick to drop away. ‘Don’t always believe what you see. That means getting hold of a boat, launching it from somewhere, leaving a paper trail, prompting questions … and that’s before you’ve found a way to get your cargo on board. Better a quiet stretch of beach and let nature take its course.’

‘So there’s nothing to link any of this to me?’

‘No. Don’t forget our fates are now very much tied together. If someone were to look at you they would be one step closer to looking at me and that’s the last thing I would want.’

Danny was finally able to relax enough to sit back in his chair. The man opposite him oozed confidence. He gave the impression this wasn’t his first time either.