If Adrian had to then he would take the blame, lose his job or go to prison for this. For now, the murders would be attributed to Finn Blackwell; he had confessed to two of them in front of Adrian, it wouldn’t be that difficult for Adrian to say he remembered more from the night of the fire, to cover for Parker. If he did this though, everything Gary said was right.

Adrian had been disappointed when they didn’t find Marcus’ dead body in that house. Who had he become? More lies. Adrian couldn’t help but feel that he was stacking karma up against himself. He had to stop making decisions outside the law. He knew the difference between what was just and what was legal, but he had no right to make those decisions. Adrian was becoming someone he didn’t recognise.

Imogen squeezed his fingers and he knew he had to change. He had to get back to the simplicity of the law, to stop imposing his own morality on others. He was putting Imogen in danger. Was there any way back for him now?

Chapter Fifty-Four

Adrian had just driven past Yeovil when Imogen finally finished speaking to DCI Kapoor on the phone.

‘She’s going to call us back, but for now we keep going. Gary is suspicious about the lack of mention of Marcus Pike in all the documentation they have,’ Imogen said.

‘What if we don’t get to him in time? What if this is a double bluff?’

‘He doesn’t have that much of a head start on us. If they can find out where he is flying from then we can get to him.’

‘What if it’s neither of those airports?’ Adrian said, trying not to think the worst.

‘The DCI checked and neither Exeter nor Bristol have flights to Japan today. Chadwycks have confirmed the containers are off to the city of Sapporo on the island of Hokkaido, which is where his mother-in-law lived. The neighbour was right; she was already dead. The DCI is getting someone onto the Road Policing Unit with Pike’s reg number. The ANPR will pick it up hopefully and confirm we are going the right way if they get no luck with finding out where he’s flying from. Don’t forget, at this point he has no idea we are onto him. He thinks he’s got away with it. Now that Finn is dead as well there is no way to link him to the murders. He doesn’t know that we figured the game out, or that we linked him to previous students.’

‘I hope you’re right.’

Imogen turned to Adrian. ‘What’s going on with you? You’re not yourself. Are you sure you should be back at work? Being held captive in a burning building can’t have been much fun. Maybe you need to see the station shrink? There’s no shame in it; I had to.’

‘No. I’m fine. Just tired and worried this scumbag is going to get away. How could they get away with this shit for so long without anyone noticing?’ He couldn’t tell her what was really bothering him.