NO! she screamed inside her head. I’m not fulfilling any prophecy. She dug her nails into Christian’s wrists in an attempt to aid her survival. He groaned, his breath coming in gasps. A bead of sweat rolled off his forehead, then onto the tip of his nose, before dripping onto her shirt.

Sweat dampened the roots of Jennifer’s hair as he pushed her head back on the hard wooden floor. She dug her nails in harder, dragging precious forensics behind her nails. He would not get away with her murder, she thought as stars blinked in her vision. But what about Will? A thump from behind caused momentary relief as a book came whizzing out of the darkness, making Christian yelp as it hit him squarely in the head.

Jennifer leapt on the distraction, and sank her teeth into the back of his hand.

Shaking his hand, Christian stared in disbelief. ‘You bitch!’

Using every ounce of strength, Jennifer scurried forwards on her hands and knees towards Will, grasping, reaching out for something, anything to help her fight. She gasped in disbelief as her fingers wrapped around a thick-handled knife, and a flash of realisation clawed its way into her brain. The knife was Bert’s, left behind after he stabbed Will. Christian had seen it too, and he launched himself upon her, clawing at the weapon. It sat in the small gap between the heat of their bodies, and a shocked gasp escaped Jennifer’s lips as it turned. The knife met flesh and plunged. It clanged against the floor and they both collapsed, heaving for breath. Jennifer’s fingers traced the warm blood dampening her shirt. Anxiously she traced the skin underneath, to the backdrop of Christian’s breaths, now coming in whistles and frothy bubbles. It was not her blood. It was his. He clasped his hands to his chest, until they slid down to his side, and his eyes became vacant.

Rifling through his pockets, she found his mobile and dialled 999. Perhaps later she would feel sorrow for Christian, but for now, her only concern was saving Will’s life.

Chapter Fifty-Four

Jennifer felt relief that Christian survived, not due to any concern for him, but because she did not want to be responsible for his murder. Facing charges for kidnapping, attempting to pervert the course of justice, witness intimidation and attempted murder, he was not going anywhere soon. But first, he had to recover from his punctured lung. It came as little surprise that Bert had fallen into decline and would spend the remainder of his life in an institution.

It was the topic of the office as Jennifer returned to work, having used up all her leave to care for Will, who was steadily recovering from his injuries. Leaving him in his mother’s care, Jennifer was keen to discover the full extent of the investigation.

‘So how’s Will?’ DI Ethan Cole said from behind his desk. He seemed to be getting a grip of his role, having almost lost two of his best officers. Her eyes fell on his desk in admiration as she noticed his sharpened pencils lined up neatly in row. She smiled at her superior, grateful for the opportunity to mull things over.

‘He’s champing at the bit to get back to work. His mum is so cute, she won’t let him outside until the doctors give him the all clear.’ Jennifer smiled. She had gotten on famously with Will’s mother since the incident. Rather than blame Jennifer for her son’s injuries, she was full of praise for her ‘brave actions’ – staying with Will, when others may have left him to fend for himself.

Ethan looked at her thoughtfully, as if reading her mind. ‘He’s very lucky. It could have been a whole lot worse, for both of you.’

Jennifer recalled the small scars dotted around Will’s wrists. The dehydration was almost as harmful as the knife injury, and they both carried guilt for not noticing the criminal right under their nose.

‘Thankfully there’s been no permanent damage. Still, it sticks in my gut to think Will was in my house the whole time we were looking for him.’

Ethan blew out a gasp of exasperation. ‘I’ve never met anyone like you before. There were teams of police officers looking for Will, but you sensed he was in your home. Something drew you back there, and you saved his life because of it. It’s a good thing Christian is as crap at dispensing drugs as he is at telling fortunes, otherwise you could have died. So give yourself a break, eh?’

Jennifer shrugged off the compliment. Everyone knew the story of how Will found the Raven, and no doubt Ethan would give him a telling-off for going it alone instead of bringing in his colleagues. It all came back to their visit to Christian. As the crocodile tears flowed, Will had noticed the white bonded notepaper on the dresser; the same notepaper used to send Jennifer the letters. It led him to seize the phone records from The Rivers mental health institution, which listed hundreds of inbound calls to Bert. Jennifer was furious at her incompetency. Having had so much on her mind, she had been in no hurry to seize the phone records, and believed Christian when he said the harassing calls had been made to him. After finding out about the insurance claim on Felicity’s life, Will took the details of the CCTV company outside Christian’s home. A security system recently installed in the periphery of Christian’s garden led Will to finding Bert parked under the cover of private wooded land. But Will’s curiosity had not gone unnoticed, and Christian had already wormed his way into Bert’s consciousness, advising him that Will was a danger to his bigger plan.

Jennifer reminded Ethan that hindsight was a wonderful thing, and sometimes hunches or suspicions were not enough to call in the cavalry and risk looking like a fool.

Ethan broke into her thoughts. ‘They’ve taken Christian’s show off the air. His ex-wife was offered a nice payout for that story they ran in the Sunday paper.’

Jennifer smiled. ‘I wasn’t entirely surprised. It was only a matter of time before the media turned on him.’

Ethan gave a bemused smirk. ‘He’s certainly the villain of the piece now. I don’t think they’ll give him an easy time of it in prison.’

Jennifer shook her head. Her disgust at Christian’s betrayal left a bitter aftertaste. She gave her trust to so few people, and he had let her down. She thought of how he had sympathised with her about her tough upbringing. His whole career was based on taking advantage of people in their grief, and he had become a master at it.

‘It’s all such a waste of life. And for what?’ Jennifer said, imagining the ghost of Bert’s mother waiting for her son to come home. Her feelings about the Raven were mixed. Since being institutionalised, he had reverted back to his previous state, with no recollection of his time outside the institution. It was hard to stay angry with someone who was being used as a pawn to commit evil deeds. The thought struck deep within her, although she could not fully understand why. She shuddered, feeling as if someone had walked over her grave.

Ethan touched the pencils on his desk, aligning them for a second time. ‘That Bert gave me the creeps. When they brought him into custody … those big black crows … the rear yard was swarming with them. Three of them slammed against the window of the SERCO van when they took him away.’

Jennifer vaguely remembered picking up the dead raven outside her home. The nightmares that followed, being attacked in the woods, she would never quite feel at ease with ravens again. She nodded, keeping the information to herself. ‘His readings, apparently they were very accurate.’

‘Yes, but sometimes he helped them to come true. All the same, I wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end of one of his predictions.’