When Parker turned around, he was confronted with the sight of blood, a lot of blood. He assumed the blood belonged to the body on the floor and he assumed that body belonged to Doctor Norris. It was hard to tell because his face had been obliterated. It looked fairly fresh and so it had happened in the last few hours. Who had done this? Was this part of the game? Or was this something else? Was there another person like Parker at work here, trying to ascertain the truth and dishing out retribution? He didn’t know any of the answers, but he did know he had a limited amount of time now. The police would be involved soon.

Parker looked around the room for a computer, as it might have more information about who was in charge, but the computer wasn’t here. He needed to find the other students before they were forced to commit any other crimes and asking Norris was no longer an option, so he searched in the drawers for any clues. He tried not to disturb the room too much, knowing the forensic scientists would be going over the place with a fine-tooth comb. Whoever committed this murder did a sloppy job.

He moved slowly and methodically through the room, making sure he didn’t touch anything that had blood on it. He didn’t want to transfer any blood to anywhere else. It was too difficult, and time was ticking on. He was angry with the person who left this mess. He couldn’t do his job if things like this happened. Whatever their motivation was, whoever did this had made things more difficult for Parker. Or maybe he just couldn’t admit to himself that he had been looking forward to confronting Norris. Maybe it wasn’t about finding things out at all, maybe it really was all about the killing. He still had one shot left with Gillian Mitchell. She could prove to be the key to the case. He would follow her and watch for a while, from a distance.

Norris’ death was bound to stoke up some frantic embers. He had to get out of there before someone walked in and discovered the body. He opened the door a sliver and looked into the hall. He could hear the clopping of heels approaching. Holding his breath, he waited for the woman to pass, hoping she wouldn’t try to enter the office. He didn’t want to hurt anyone that didn’t deserve it. A minute later and she was gone. She might tell the police that she saw the professor’s light on, but other than that she’d have seen nothing. He slipped out as quickly as he had slipped in, no one any the wiser. There was no CCTV inside these buildings.

As he was walking down the hill and out of the uni, he saw one of the maintenance staff unblocking one of the outside drains. He needed to get himself some blue overalls.