Chapter Forty-Nine

Adrian’s eyes stung from the overwhelming smell of the petrol. He watched the candle on the piano as it burned down. Finn had run out of petrol before he had had a chance to douse either Adrian or Parker with it, which gave Adrian a little hope. Parker still seemed entirely unfazed by the experience. Maybe he had no desire to get out of the situation; Adrian couldn’t begin to guess how that man’s mind worked.

Finn was still pacing and muttering to himself, on the brink of losing control altogether. He rushed over to the two men and Adrian realised he had a knife in his hand. He focused on the blade, watching the boy’s fingers nervously clasping the handle.

‘I didn’t want it to happen like this. You seem all right. I wish you hadn’t followed me,’ Finn said.

‘You know if you do this that he will control you forever,’ Adrian said carefully. ‘Killing a police officer is serious business. Even if the authorities don’t figure it out, he will know, and he will make you do more bad things. Where does it end?’

‘Do you think you are worth any more than any of the other people I killed? Are you worth more than Caitlin?’ Finn asked, his voice cracking.

Adrian noted how hard it was for Finn to say Caitlin’s name. Maybe Russ wasn’t the only one who was in love with her. A love that made him do irrational things.

‘You liked Caitlin.’

‘Everyone liked Caitlin. Russ was obsessed with her and I just had to pretend I was OK with it. She just had something, you know? Have you ever met anyone like that?’

‘I met her. She seemed like a special girl,’ Adrian said, unsure what was likely to push Finn over the edge. He wasn’t lying; there had been something special about Caitlin. Something that pulled you in and made you want to protect her.

‘She was mine first. I loved her.’

‘So, what happened?’

‘They wanted Russ, so I had to get her to pretend to be into him. I didn’t want to, but I told her to sleep with him. He didn’t know about us – about me and her. He couldn’t believe his luck. Russ wasn’t very confident around girls, so when she showed an interest in him, what else was he going to do? She hated me for that, for making her do that. That’s when things changed between us and I just wanted to go back to how it was.’

‘Then you had to watch them be together?’

‘Not just them. She told me they made her sleep with Norris, that dirty old man; he was old enough to be her grandad. He wanted out, they were using her to keep him in.’

‘So, you killed him?’

‘I smashed his head in, dirty fucker.’ Finn smiled to himself. ‘And then I had to watch her go after you. You are the first person who ever turned her down. I knew you liked her though; I saw you that night, dropping her off at home. After she went inside, I saw you thinking about it, thinking about ringing her doorbell and going inside. I really enjoyed fucking up your face that night.’