Kate dodged as he swung the blade towards her. ‘You’re not thinking straight, Finn. Killing me isn’t the answer. People know you’re here…’ Her eyes darted as she tried to think of anything else that would stall him while she tried to find something to defend herself with. Her eyes fell on his phone. ‘And your phone is here too. Laura knows you’re here and your phone’s signal will validate the fact; they’ll soon come looking for you.’

‘It doesn’t matter anymore. I’ll go on the run.’

‘No, Finn. Life on the run isn’t easy. Always looking over your shoulder to see who’s chasing you. And believe me, killing a police officer will mean you always have someone on your back.’

He sneered. ‘You lot didn’t find me for a whole year.’

‘But think about how that secret has haunted you. You said you weren’t sleeping properly, the farm is struggling financially and your marriage is on the rocks. You’re not coping, Finn. You know you have to do the right thing and come clean. I can help you; I can make sure you get a fair hearing. You’ll be able to explain your side of the story.’

He took a step closer. ‘It’s too late for all that. I don’t want prison, and I don’t want my parents disowning me for what I’ve done. This is the only way.’

Finn gripped the knife, blocking Kate’s only way out. She was trapped.

‘You’re not a killer, Finn. You said Amy’s death was an accident. It’s different.’

‘You said yourself: desperate people are capable of so much more.’

‘You’re not thinking clearly, Finn. There isn’t another suspect you can pin this on. Brookes and Nicola Isbitt are gone. There isn’t another psycho out there who’d try and kill me. This will be examined over and over until they arrest you. Go now and you can do your best to get away before I call it in.’

He saw his phone on the sofa next to her and grabbed it. ‘You won’t be phoning anybody.’ Then racing to where her phone had landed, he stamped on it until the screen cracked and dimmed. ‘There we go.’

Kate scanned the room again. Her crutches were on the floor where they’d fallen earlier. If she could stretch her right foot out, she might just be able to hook one of the handles with her toes. It wouldn’t do much to scare him off, but it could provide some protection, even if just to keep him a short distance away.

He turned and moved back to the window that looked down on the communal garden. ‘You were right earlier… things did go a bit further with Amy. She seduced me though. She wanted me to watch her changing, that’s why she left her bedroom door open and stood in view of the mirror.’

Stretching her foot out, Kate couldn’t shake the feeling of light-headedness washing over her.

‘I knew she wanted me. She lived for danger and sought it wherever she could find it. Coming after me was the ultimate temptation. If our parents weren’t married she wouldn’t have looked twice at me. But the thing was, I wanted her just as much.’

The loophole of Kate’s crutch was just out of reach. She tried to shuffle herself down the sofa cushion. Her toes were barely an inch from touching the grey plastic.

‘I let her seduce me. I’d have done anything for her, and she knew how to wrap me around her finger. But she got cold feet and pushed me away. I fell off the edge of the bed. She raced out of the room, but I chased after her. I was still aroused and wanted her to explain what was wrong. I could see she still wanted me, but she was denying it. We crashed into the shelving unit in the lounge, and we fought, but she drove her knee into my privates, and as she clambered up, I reached for her foot, and it was that trip that caused her to fall and bang her head.’ He turned and saw Kate’s right leg straining to reach the crutch. He moved quickly towards it and kicked the crutch further away.

Kate’s shoulders slumped, and she shuffled back up the cushion, anticipating what he planned next. ‘Don’t do this.’

He tilted his head as a sickening smile spread across his face. ‘How’s your head, Kate?’

Her face wrinkled with confusion. ‘My head?’ A wave of nausea swept through her, and the feeling of light-headedness grew. ‘What did you…?’ She glanced back at the mug of coffee.

‘I’ll phone Laura when I’m done here and tell her how worried I am about you. I’ll tell her you’re devastated by your failure to find the real culprit, and that I’m concerned about your health. I know your colleagues have been worried about your mental state in recent weeks. Laura will turn up here and find you in a bath of water, both wrists slit, and your death will be ruled a suicide. Nobody will be looking for me, because you’ll have killed yourself.’

Her vision was blurring and lethargy made her limbs sluggish. ‘What did you do?’

Finn’s manic grin grew wider. ‘I crushed and mixed some of the painkillers I found in the kitchen into your drink. Your death will be a tragic tale of how far you pushed yourself to solve Amy’s murder. Right. Over. The. Edge.’

Two blurred images of his face smiled down on her as he pocketed the knife, and bent to scoop her up. She tried to flap a fist towards him, but her arm barely registered the movement. As Kate tried to speak, her face felt like it had dropped and the words that came out were slurred.

---

By the time he had lowered her into the tub, she’d lost feeling in both arms and legs. But her hearing remained strong. The plug chain echoed off the edges of the bathtub as he fitted the plug and turned on both taps. The water rushed out of the tap and she could just about sense it lapping against her. Kate made one further attempt to reason with him, but the words that came out were incoherent.