‘I told you, I’m not going to talk.’

‘Then I’m going to carry on until you do. No one will be here for at least nine hours. Do you have any idea what I could do to you in that time?’

‘Get on with it then.’ Robert Coley spat the words out.

With that, Parker pushed his knife into an intervertebral disc in Coley’s lower back, the soft tissue between each vertebra that stopped the discs from rubbing together. Coley screamed with the discomfort and Parker tried to ignore the thrill he felt at causing pain. Parker knew all about pain; there wasn’t a part of his body that hadn’t been through it. He hated the people that had hurt him, and he made sure he hurt them back. With everything his abusers had put him through, he had become a master of pain. He knew how much pressure to exert and when, he knew where all the little nerve endings were. He had been prodded, poked, burned and skewered himself enough times to understand the intricacies of pain. He thought that his desire to cause pain had gone when they were no longer alive, but it hadn’t. It wasn’t a compulsion or something that he actively missed, but here, now, doing this felt more right than Parker had felt in a long time. He knew he was messed up, knew that he wasn’t like everyone else. But he wanted to protect Abbey, and this was a part of that, wasn’t it? Or was this his sickness raising its ugly head again? He had been determined to move past the person they had made him, but here he was again and as he watched the blood pool on the floor by his feet, he was excited. Had he really moved on or was this just the excuse he had been looking for?

He disconnected the vertebra and pulled it out, Coley’s body spasming until he went limp, passed out from the pain. He should stop now, he should just get it over with. If Coley hadn’t spoken up to save himself, then he wasn’t going to talk now. Instead Parker pushed the knife in again and again, methodically removing each of the vertebrae.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Present

Imogen rang the doorbell to Adrian’s house. She couldn’t remember if he had told her he was going out. There were no lights on downstairs, but it was late. She banged on the door in case he was just asleep. She had tried his phone, but it’d rung through to answerphone. Adrian hadn’t been quite right since the accusations were made against him. She had told him the truth when she said she didn’t doubt him, but she wasn’t sure he believed her. Adrian was full of self-doubt at the best of times, convinced that he was genetically predisposed to be a shithead. The reappearance of Parker was a concern. This could be the end for them. If anyone knew they had concealed his identity from the rest of the force, from the investigation, then they would be in deep trouble, facing not only unemployment but also criminal prosecution and probably prison.