‘It’ll all work out in the end. One way or another,’ Gary said before leaving the room.

One decision, that’s all it had been. One decision to not go after one person and look at everything that had happened since. More people had died and that blood was on Adrian’s hands. Why hadn’t Parker stayed away? Why hadn’t he got on with his life and just left well alone? There was no way this was going to end well for Adrian, and he couldn’t take Gary and Imogen down with him. He had to sort this out. He didn’t know what he was going to do, but he would think of something. He just hoped that whatever it was didn’t make things worse.

Chapter Forty-Four

There was less than an hour left before they had to let Finn Blackwell go. Adrian wanted to talk to him alone and see if he could get through to him. If he could get him to tell them where Russ Beacham was before Parker found him, then maybe he could stop any more bloodshed. Finn must know more than he was letting on; there was just something about him that seemed dishonest. Especially after what Scott Woodlaw had told them about his violent outburst. Adrian didn’t know whether it was gut instinct, experience or subtle micro-expressions that gave away when someone was lying, probably a combination of all three, but after years on the job you just get a feel for those things.

Finn Blackwell was lying and Adrian didn’t know how he knew that, but he was. This was what happened when you lied. You had to lie again in order to cover up the first lie, then again and again until you were in a hole so deep you couldn’t see a way out of it. Adrian hoped that he would learn from this experience if he got through it; although learning from his mistakes was never his strong suit.

His biggest problem now was Imogen. There was no way she would let him try to fix this on his own. He knew she felt equally responsible, but she wasn’t; she had gone along with his decision, but she hadn’t made it. He hadn’t given her the choice. Now she was stuck with the consequences, too. That just didn’t sit right with Adrian.

Gary approached. ‘I’ve got a lead on a possible location for Beacham,’ he said to Imogen.

Adrian could tell that Gary held him responsible, too, and it was doing nothing to assuage his guilt in the matter. You never know how high you hold someone’s opinion of you until it drops. Being in Gary’s bad books made Adrian feel like shit.

‘Where?’ Imogen stood up and grabbed her jacket, ready to go.

‘I was looking through the few pictures of Russ Beacham we found online and several of them take place outside the same building. After some cross-referencing and working out the date of the building, I managed to figure out where it was. It’s in Scarborough Street in town. It’s a building that used to belong to the sixth-form college that Russ went to,’ Gary said.