‘You have enough,’ Mark said, feeling the sweat running down the back of his neck. He imagined what he looked like to them now. Too eager, too willing.

Too scared.

‘We had enough just finding you there, probably,’ DI Hicks replied, leaning back in his chair, his hands folded over his stomach. ‘Even if you’d given us some story about just turning up and finding her there, I doubt it would have been enough. Not for a civilian. But, then, we’re not dealing with that here, are we?’

Mark lowered his head, knowing it was done. He wondered how they had found out, what he had left behind as a clue. There was nothing in his pockets when he’d been arrested; he’d left everything in the car.

The car?

Next to him, the solicitor shifted in his seat and cleared his throat. Clearly he hadn’t been informed of what was happening. And DI Hicks was taking his time in dropping the hammer.

Let him, Mark thought. He was getting ever closer to the twenty-four-hour mark. He considered the words he’d heard over the phone – the robotic voice and its stilted cadence. The almost palpable violence and anger in something that couldn’t express emotion.

Mark was tired. His thoughts mudded up and crashing into each other. A robotic voice couldn’t do those things, he thought.

He realised no one had spoken for almost half a minute; both detectives stared at him from across the table. They were waiting for him to say something.

They were going to have to do better than that.

‘Why were you there?’

‘Because that’s where I had to be,’ Mark replied, staring back at DI Hicks. Daring him to maintain eye contact with him. He wondered if he thought he was crazy or if he believed Mark had actually done something to Holly Edwards. He supposed he’d find out soon enough. ‘That’s the Game.’

‘See, now we know who you are, we got the chance to do a little digging.’

‘I’m sorry, can I just interject?’ the solicitor said, interrupting for the first time in what felt like forever. ‘Could you tell me what’s going on here?’

All three detectives turned to the weedy little man. He lowered his head in response and stayed quiet.

‘As I was saying,’ DI Hicks continued, giving the solicitor one last look of annoyance, ‘we’ve done a bit of digging. Turns out you weren’t even in the country for two of the people you claim to have murdered. Also, Steven Hallet died the same night you were on duty in Liverpool. So, unless you have a special transporter you’d like to tell us about, why don’t you start telling us the truth?’

Mark swallowed, his mouth dry. There was a horrible taste in his mouth. ‘What time is it now?’