‘We need to get out of here,’ Adrian said.

‘He doesn’t know what he’s doing,’ Parker said. ‘I think if we hang on, the main player will show their face. This boy isn’t making any decisions for himself; he checks every step of the way what he is and is not allowed to do. Whoever the person is, they have covered themselves absolutely. The others were pretty smart, but he or she is like a ghost.’

‘You think it could be a woman?’

‘I have no idea who it is. I’ve looked through everything I found. I need more time. You go if you need to,’ Parker said as though that were a possibility.

They heard a noise and the sound of Finn’s voice getting closer again. He was agitated and muttering to himself, unhappy with what he had heard on the other end of the phone no doubt. The kingpin of this operation was going to hang Finn out to dry, there was no question about that. How could Adrian convince Finn that was the case though?

Adrian couldn’t help but wonder what Parker was thinking. Was he planning a way to escape or was his plan literally just to wait and see what happened next, then judge whether he needed to make a move or not? Maybe he was thinking about a way to kill Finn. Was that how simple it was for him? To just decide that someone needed to die and then do it. That was crazy. But then Adrian couldn’t deny how horrifying those crime scenes he had attended had been and even worse were the videos that Gary had showed him. The abstract idea of Parker was far more comfortable than being in close proximity to him.

Finn came back into the room, rubbing his hair and scratching at his forehead, distressed and confused, clearly unsure how to handle the situation and conflicted by whatever he had just heard on the phone. He paced and occasionally side-eyed Adrian as though he were an inconvenience he would rather not deal with.

‘Talk to me, Finn,’ Adrian said, making sure to use his name.

‘I can’t,’ Finn said.

‘Where’s Russ? Is he coming here?’

‘No.’

‘Were you just talking to him on the phone?’

‘No. Stop talking to me, I know what you’re doing.’ Finn smacked the side of his own head.

‘What is it you think I’m doing?’

‘You’re going to try and confuse me. He said you would.’

‘Who did? Russ?’

‘No! Shut up!’ Finn was getting more and more distressed.

Adrian noted that Finn had said ‘he’, so that narrowed the field down a little; of course, this information was useless if Adrian couldn’t get out of there before Finn killed him.

‘How do you know whoever it is you spoke to hasn’t called the police already? Maybe they are on their way here. If you get caught with us like this then you will go to prison for a very long time.’