It was dark when he awoke. Irritation swept over him when he checked the time and discovered it was midnight. He’d wanted to visit Jodie’s house, see if he could catch a glimpse of her. He’d have to wait until the morning and stand in his usual spot. He had seen her go to that other nursing home and guessed it had been for an interview. She was a good nurse, he’d watched her long enough to have come to that conclusion. They would have offered her a job, he was sure of it. She may have already started. He needed to follow her to be certain.

At 7am, he dressed carefully, layering a long-sleeved T-shirt under his shirt before he slipped on a jumper and finished with his warmest jacket. A scarf around his neck and a beanie hat jammed on his head and he was ready for what could be hours of waiting. He walked the fifteen minutes to the corner of her road, shoved his hands in his pockets and shuffled from foot to foot, his eyes never leaving her front door.

He wasn’t kept waiting long. Only ten minutes later, the front door opened and, for a minute, he was fooled. He’d expected to see Jodie, and he assumed the person who came out, wrapped up against the autumnal chill was her. But the form was too big, too wide. And when it turned, when he saw who it was, anger warmed Victor from the inside. He unwrapped the scarf and pulled off his hat as he watched Flynn Douglas walk away.

Rage cleared his mind and twisted his mouth. He knew exactly what he was going to do.

33

Jodie left for work a short while after Flynn. They’d fallen into a routine, getting up at the same time, breakfasting at the table in front of the kitchen window and commenting on the weather outside. He left to get his train, and minutes later, she left for the twenty-five-minute walk to her new job at Seacrest Manor Nursing Home.

It was working out fine for her. It was a busy home, but well-staffed and the management were accommodating. She was only contracted to work twenty-four hours a week in two twelve-hour shifts but she’d worked an extra shift last week and had been asked to work an extra two this week. Most of these extras were at the weekend, a nuisance since Flynn was often off, but she needed to take every opportunity to show the management that she was exactly what she knew herself to be – a good, reliable nurse.

Happy enough at work but glowing at home, Flynn was a dream to live with. They found they had so much in common: music, TV programmes, food, drink. They liked nothing better than to settle down in the evening to watch and dissect their favourite Scandi crime series.