What’s King Edward going to do? Now that he’s here, my conviction that he won’t hurt me has grown stronger. So has my fear, which has turned into terror. I don’t think I could move even if I decided I wanted to.

The whimpering stops—not a clean stop, but a muffling. More tape-pulling sounds, and cutting.

There’s definitely someone else in the room. King Edward’s put tape over her mouth. I inhale hard, filling my lungs with as much air as I can.

“Don’t worry, Nicki,” King Edward says. “You’re afraid I’m going to hurt her, but I’m not. I’m not going to hurt anyone. If you want her to, she’ll walk out of this room alive and unharmed once we’re done here.”

“Done doing what?” I ask, my voice so hoarse I almost don’t recognize it. “Tell me what I want to know—everything.” I pull off my blindfold and see him as a moving shadow in the semi-darkness. And a chair, with someone in it . . .

“Put that back on,” King Edward snaps. “You agreed to my conditions.”

“And you told me you were Damon Blundy, you stupid piece of shit! Give me one good reason why I should keep any promise I ever made you.” I would have, if he hadn’t brought a woman with him. Her presence—the danger she might be in—has broken his hold over me.

I reach for the metal chain dangling from the lamp attached to the wall by the bed, and pull.

At first, his face is like pieces of a jigsaw assembled in the wrong order: flashes of familiarity not quite adding up to a recognizable picture. Then my brain catches up and it makes sense. I know who this man is. I know what he’s capable of.

Pain. Unimaginable agony.

I know I’d be safer if he were someone else, anyone else . . .

He’s moving toward me with the tape in his hand.

I open my mouth to scream.

BRYN GILLIGAN COMMITS SUICIDE AND CONFESSES TO MURDER
Tuesday, July 9, 2013, Daily Herald Online

Disgraced sprinter Bryn Gilligan, 28, took his own life today. His body was found by his mother, Jennifer, 56, when she returned from her health club to the home she shared with her son in Norwich. An ambulance worker who attended the scene claimed to have seen a suicide note in which Gilligan confessed to the murder of Daily Herald columnist Damon Blundy.

Blundy, a prominent supporter of Gilligan’s right to race again, was found dead in his home in Spilling on Monday, July 1. Police are investigating his death. DS Sam Kombothekra of Culver Valley CID said, “It would be premature to comment at this early stage.” DS Kombothekra wouldn’t confirm or deny that Gilligan had left a note containing a confession.