‘I’m confused, OK? What happens next?’

‘I say we try not to overthink it, Adrian. Let’s eat some dinner, watch some TV and then you can stay the night. This is weird enough without us being weird with it.’

‘You’re being very pragmatic about the whole thing.’

‘I know, it’s disconcerting.’

Imogen left the room. Adrian followed her into the lounge, feeling like a lost dog waiting for instruction. He was used to being the one in control in these situations, but he knew that wasn’t the case here. It occurred to him in that moment that every woman he had ever had strong feelings for was like this with him. Andrea, Lucy and now Imogen. Maybe he needed to feel submissive in order to feel love.

Imogen picked up her phone and went into her takeaway app. ‘Pepperoni OK?’

‘Sounds great.’

She paused for a moment and took a deep breath before speaking. ‘What do we do about work? The DCI will kill me if I get into another inappropriate workplace relationship.’

‘Another one?’

‘Dean, you know, suspect, witness … whatever you want to call him.’ She put the order through and put the phone down.

‘Oh, I thought you meant another copper.’

‘No. Not at this station anyway.’ She winked and pulled the vase of flowers out of the sink and put them on the windowsill to die.

Adrian had only recently started thinking about Imogen with other men. Even though he had known when she was with Dean, he felt uncomfortable thinking about it now. He didn’t like to think of her with anyone else. He was jealous.

‘How long ’til that pizza comes?’ he said, walking towards her, knowing they had at least half an hour. He needed to confirm that this was real, that it was still happening. Now the first time was out of the way.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

One month ago

The train pulled into Exeter St David’s train station and Parker stood by the door ready to disembark. His stomach churned as the landmarks came into view. He’d never thought he would come back to this place. He thought he was done. The train came to a halt and Parker stepped off. No one looked at him, no one noticed him, no one knew what he had done. What he was about to do.

He walked through the station and took the various roads to get to his old house, his grandfather’s house. He held his breath as he opened the door to the smell of his childhood, not wanting to be hit with it but to let it in slowly. Everything was how he had left it. He would never sell this house, it wouldn’t be fair. It was tainted and cursed. He had left a message for the cleaner not to come this month; he didn’t want any unexpected visitors. He had work to do. He had to find out what the link between Helen Lassiter and Robert Coley was, he had to find out who else was involved and what this was all about, what they wanted from Abbey, Parker’s wife, the love of his life. He got angry when he thought about the conversation he had read, angry enough to kill again.