‘I know,’ Adrian admitted reluctantly.

‘And what happens when you decide to drag your heels so that he can get to the bad guys before you?’

‘What are you suggesting?’

Adrian knew what he was suggesting and it was a thought that had crossed his own mind. Where did this end? Wasn’t Adrian already complicit by not putting Parker away? What was worse was that he was making his friends complicit, too. His head hurt.

‘I’m saying that every time you let him cross a line, you cross a line yourself and who knows where that ends up? What if one day you start helping him?’ Gary said.

‘That’s not going to happen,’ Adrian insisted.

‘You’re on a slippery slope, my friend.’

‘Are you going to tell the DCI about him?’

‘And get you both fired, or worse? How is that going to help? I don’t need that on my conscience, thanks.’

‘You’re right. I don’t know what to do.’

‘There’s no way of knowing who is in these videos, they are all quite useless in terms of identification, so you got lucky there. The definition is very poor, but from what I can see the perpetrator has got generic clothes on, no identifying labels, average height and weight like the other suspects. This could be Beacham or Blackwell as far as we know,’ Gary consoled Adrian. ‘We just have to hope that your friend knows when to stop.’

The only way Adrian could think of this ever working was if Parker came forward and handed himself in. What were the chances of that?

Chapter Forty-One

Imogen had never been to university herself and so walking through halls was reminiscent of a life she’d never had. She couldn’t imagine it for herself, being in close quarters with all these other people day and night. Growing up as an only child to a single mother meant she was not used to this amount of company. Imogen had never felt like she missed out and being here today confirmed that fact. Soon university would be a part of becoming a police officer; she was glad to have bypassed that.

Adrian was trailing behind her, on the phone to his son who was in the middle of intensive revision for his exams. She knew Tom well, but not as Adrian’s girlfriend, and so what had been a fun and interesting friendship with her partner’s son was now looking like it might get extremely awkward. Adrian rightfully hadn’t told him yet and she wasn’t sure how he would react to the news. Did she even want him to know yet? Was this serious? It certainly had a weight about it, as relationships went – they already knew each other’s baggage, and so the usual small talk at the start of a relationship had never happened and they’d been thrust straight into stage three. After flirtation but without the usual ceremony of the first or second date, here they were.

She waited patiently for him to hang up and then knocked on the door to the room next to Finn’s. A small, waspish blonde girl opened the door and peered through, her tight smile dropping when she saw it was two ‘older’ people looking very serious indeed. There was no need to pretend to be friendly.