‘What did you do, Leah?’ His voice has hardened. He already knows.

‘I don’t want to go into who or how – I won’t implicate anyone – but… I paid someone to frame him. I just wanted him back behind bars. I wanted to feel safe.’

‘Don’t. Don’t tell me things like that. I might be retired but morally—’

‘Morally? He doesn’t have any morals.’

‘Two wrongs don’t make a right. Did you think about the implications? Other people getting hurt?’

‘Yes. I was clear no one was to get hurt. I only had a few thousand pounds. It’s not like—’

‘Don’t try to justify this. What you’ve done is a serious crime. You could go to prison.’

‘I know that but I couldn’t bear the thought of him out there. Couldn’t just sit around, waiting for him to do… something.’

‘I can’t condone—’

‘I don’t expect you to. Are you going to report me?’

I wait. Listen to Graham drawing on his cigarette.

‘I don’t want us to speak of this again,’ he says eventually.

‘Of course. But you do see this gives him a motive.’

‘How would he have known it was you?’

‘He knows somebody had set him up, and who hates him more than me, Carly and Marie? Who fears him more? Still fears him more than us? I’m so frightened, Graham.’

‘Are you sure you’ve seen him?’

‘Yes. I might have had Fregoli before but it’s different this time, don’t you see. The teddy—’

‘It’s not unusual to find a lost toy in the park.’

‘Wearing a cross?’

He doesn’t respond.

‘Please, Graham. You said a minute ago if I had told you back then that he’d approached me you would have believed me – now you’re doubting me too. I just need to know if he’s local? I’m going out of my mind here.’

Neither of us speak. Seconds tick past.

‘Leah, I can’t tell you if he’s local. I can’t tell you where he lives. I can’t tell you not to go to the Dog and Duck for a drink.’

Graham puts the phone down without saying goodbye, before I can say thank you, but he’s told me all I need to know. The minute George is home from work…

The power has shifted in my favour. I know where to find him.

One day.

Fuck tomorrow. This is where it will end.

Today.

Chapter Thirty-Four

Carly

Then

‘Three blind mice, three blind mice.’ Carly shrank away from the words. She could almost picture Moustache’s pale pink lips moving, the thick black hairs above his mouth shifting and settling. ‘See how they run.’ His voice grew louder.

A slam. A palm against metal. Moustache was hitting the lockers. Again a slap, a cracking in her ear. Lying on her side, Carly felt the vibrations rise through her hip, trembling down her spine.

He knew.

She clamped both hands over her mouth now to contain the scream that was building. Tears leaked from her eyes.