“You ready to go back inside?”

“No.”

“Knew you didn’t have it in you.”

Rory gave her a venomous glare. “You try getting stabbed, see how you feel.”

“It’s barely a scratch.” Morris argued.

Rory closed his eyes. “Someone trapped me in a storage room and stabbed me. I can’t go back there. I just can’t.”

“Did you blow your cover?” Hamish asked.

“No.”

“So this is inmates being inmates, a welcome to prison tradition.”

“It hurt…”

Hamish shuffled his chair forward. “I believe you, but you can’t give up. Sebastian Claw is evil. I put him away all those years ago, and I need to do it again. If us three do this, we’ll be heroes in the community.”

“I never wanted to be a hero.”

“You’ll climb the ladder like me and Morris. More money, more respect. A man your dad would’ve been proud of.”

Rory flashed a look at Morris, then at Hamish.

“Look, if you can’t do it, step aside,” Hamish muttered, “but it’ll be a wasted opportunity. I brought you into this because I trust you, I see huge potential. You could be a successful police officer, maybe even an inspector one day, like Morris.”

“Twenty years ago now.”

“And you jump from division to division.” Rory murmured. He didn’t add ‘and bed to bed,’ but Morris narrowed her eyes like she knew Rory was thinking it.

“Morris is one of the best officers on the entire force. I asked her specifically to help me with this case.”

He gazed up at Morris, and she pouted her lips, then fluttered her overdone eyelashes. “And I came running.”

Hamish turned back to Rory and grabbed his hand. “I know you can do it. I’ve always believed in you, you can’t let me down…”

Rory chewed his bottom lip and didn’t speak. His silence earned him a pat on the shoulder.

“That a boy. Now think back to this past week. Has Sebastian said anything, anything at all that could hint at what him, and his old friends are planning?”

“He said when he gets out, he’s gonna celebrate with a big bang.”

“A bang?” Morris mumbled. “Like an explosion, a bomb?”

“I don’t know, that’s all he said.”

Hamish itched his moustache. “We all know he’s done deals with terrorists before, sold devastating bombs over the dark web. What would he want to blow up? The court that sent him down? The police station he was charged in—”

“The inspector’s house that caught him?” Morris whispered.

Hamish gawped. “You don’t think…”

“He sent you that letter.” Morris whispered.

Rory looked up. “What letter?”

“He said he’d make my life hell…”

Morris squeezed his shoulder, and her eyes rounded with sympathy. “What if you’re in danger?”