Adrian hadn’t moved much since they put him in the bed, but Imogen had spoken to the doctor, who had assured her that he was fine. Any injuries he had sustained were purely superficial. Now that they were in a relationship and she had accepted that, she found herself worrying more. Not that she didn’t care before, but now it had been dialled up to eleven. It was a strange thing – when she thought about it, it must be a selfish thing: if Adrian got hurt then it cost her emotionally and so she didn’t want him to get hurt. Was his safety even about him any more? Or was it about how inconvenient it would be to her if anything happened to him? She put her thoughts down to the recent loss of her mother and how annoyed she still was with her for selfishly dying, without even a consideration as to how it would affect Imogen. She was also annoyed with Adrian for putting himself in danger without considering how she would feel if something happened to him, especially after what he had been through. Maybe deflecting her feelings onto Adrian was a way of ignoring how vulnerable she felt now that she cared more deeply about him.

‘What are you thinking about?’ Adrian said.

She hadn’t even noticed him waking up.

‘I thought that was supposed to be my line?’ She stood up and leaned over the bed.

‘How long have I been asleep?’ Adrian asked.

‘It’s only been a few hours, don’t worry. How are you feeling?’

‘Good. What happened to the house? Did they manage to put it out?’ Adrian said.

‘Yes, although it was burned to a shell before that happened. They found one body in the downstairs and are still sifting through the rest of the debris for evidence. I would be surprised if we find anything though. We still don’t know who lived there or why Finn was there. There were traces of accelerant, so the fire was no accident.’

‘Finn Blackwell. He covered the place in petrol,’ Adrian said.

‘How did you get away?’

‘I just kept him talking. I was secured with duct tape, but I worked my way through it while he babbled on. He confessed to the murders.’

‘What happened?’

‘I followed him to that place, he caught me and then he just lost it. I overheard him talking to someone on the phone, but I don’t know who it was. I’m not sure if they instructed him to start the fire or not, but he covered the place in accelerant and then when I got free there was a struggle. He had a knife on me, we wrestled for it, I grabbed it and defended myself. The only light in there was a candle and that got knocked over while we were fighting over the knife.’

‘Did you kill him?’ Imogen asked.

‘Yes,’ Adrian said, turning away as he spoke. ‘I had no choice, it was him or me.’