‘I told you to be quiet!’

‘Look, just tell me the name of the person who has been telling you what to do.’

‘I can’t. He can protect me, you can’t.’

‘I very much doubt he can protect you from the law, he is protecting himself. We found you, Finn, if he was protecting you then we wouldn’t have been able to.’

‘Stop talking!’ Finn cuffed Adrian hard across the face.

As his head snapped to the side, he saw Parker watching Finn, eyes glassy and wide like marbles, measuring every single thing Finn did. Parker was like a cat watching a mouse, knowing exactly how this encounter was going to end.

Adrian could taste blood inside his mouth where his cheek mashed into his teeth.

‘Was he protecting Caitlin, too? Because she didn’t come out of this too well,’ Adrian said.

‘She was going to tell on us, she had to be stopped,’ Finn said. It was almost a confession.

‘So, it wasn’t suicide then?’

Finn punched Adrian again, his fist connecting with his ear. Adrian had braced for it and so he recovered quickly.

‘Stop confusing me! Caitlin was talking to the cops. She promised she would never go against me and then she did that. She lied to me. She lied to me just like she lied to everyone else.’

‘Is that why you killed Hugh Norris? Did someone tell you to do that? Was it Caitlin? Were you sleeping with her, Finn? How about Doctor Norris, was Caitlin the student he was having the affair with?’

Finn was rubbing his temples, his eyes clamped shut as though he were trying to push the image of Hugh Norris and Caitlin out of his mind.

‘I’m trying to think.’

‘What about the man who tells you what to do? Did he have a thing with Caitlin as well? She was a beautiful girl, maybe he was jealous of your relationship with her and so he lied to you about what she was telling us. Aside from clearing my name, she didn’t tell us anything.’

‘You’re lying! How else would you know all the stuff you know about what we were doing?’

‘He might be telling the police you did it all. Caitlin wouldn’t tell us anything.’

‘She must have!’

‘Is that why you killed her? Did the professor tell you that she was talking to us?’ Adrian said, assuming he was talking about another professor: all the evidence seemed to point that way.

‘I don’t have a choice! I have to do what he says!’

‘Why is that?’ Adrian said.

‘Because I’ve done too many bad things; he knows everything.’

‘If you were coerced into doing the things you did then there is a possibility you won’t spend the rest of your life in prison.’

‘I’ve killed people, and that’s not all I’ve done,’ Finn said.

‘Which people did you kill?’ Adrian said.

‘Owen. Doctor Norris, Russ … and Caitlin.’

So, Russ wasn’t behind any of it. Finn was a good liar, Adrian would give him that. He had been quite convinced that Finn’s account of Russ’s involvement was at least partially true.