Oh God, Pete thought. Please don’t leave me here with my arms tied this tightly behind me. I’ll die. The pain was unbelievable, pulsing in waves up his arms and into his neck and head.

‘Right. We’ll be back tomorrow…’

Back? We?

Those words were chilling enough, redolent with threat, but what Rolli said next was what made Pete howl through his gag, struggling futilely against all his restraints, not even caring that it made everything hurt even more.

He’d failed. Failed Andrea, failed Ralph, failed himself…

‘…with your sister. And that’s when the fun starts. Sweet dreams, Pete.’

The phone was picked up. The door opened and closed again, the barrow wheel squeaking as it was wheeled away. The man was gone.

Sobbing and choking, Pete slumped forwards to try and relieve the pressure on his arms. Most of all, he’d failed Meredith.

46

Graeme

Graeme sits waiting in the van, parked in the small car park outside the dental surgery, heart banging painfully against his ribcage, thick hands shaking as they grip the steering wheel. His nails are filthy from the dirt he rubbed on the van’s number plates this morning.

No matter how many times he’s done it, it never feels any less stressful, even though everything has gone smoothly this time – so far anyway. But it’s not a fear of danger he feels; it’s a fear of messing up, of risking Catherine’s displeasure.

Catherine used to say she loved his hands, how strong they were. Now they’ll be together as a couple, will she say it again?

Graeme looks down at them, thinking back on some of the actions his hands have performed, the power they have wielded, the lives they’ve changed.

He doesn’t often get this philosophical, but this is a big day, with so much at stake.

A very big day. In fact, it feels as if this moment is the pinnacle of his life. All the planning, all the worrying, his secret fear that something will go wrong and he’ll be back inside too, or that he’ll fuck it up like last time – that stupid man out walking his stupid dog. It took Catherine years to forgive him for that. But now he has another chance. They both do. There can be no mistakes this time.

In the event, he didn’t need to be so stressed about it. It couldn’t have been easier. All those months and years of prep, and now here Catherine is, in the back of an old red Honda that is just pulling into the car park. Graeme doesn’t recognise the female driver – must be a new nurse – but the one sitting chatting to her on the back seat is Penny, a small plump sister that Graeme knows Catherine gets on well with. Will that make it harder to hurt her?