Jessica could feel the pain in her head from the blow but could just about focus. ‘Why did you do it, Randall?’

There were tears in his eyes but he still had a fierce look on his face. ‘It was Nigel. I had become Randall and was getting on with things but then two of them came to me on the stall. It was like a sign. A way to finally say goodbye to Nigel and get on with my life.’

Jessica realised he must mean the two burglary victims. They had gone to the closest place to them to get new keys cut after Wayne Lapham had broken into their homes but their appearance must have reminded Randall of a part of him he had buried. The part that still remembered being Nigel and feeling helpless.

‘How did you recognise them?’

‘I don’t forget faces.’

‘Really?’

‘I guess that’s part of being “weird”.’

‘Why didn’t you kill the boys who hurt you?’

Jessica felt the body astride her tense up. ‘What?’ It was almost as if he hadn’t heard her correctly. He used one of his hands to rub first one ear, then the other, the grip with his knees returning to what it was.

‘Why didn’t you go after the ones who had hurt you instead of their parents?’

‘They didn’t kill me, did they? They made me live like this.’

Jessica couldn’t move her body enough to nod but in some ways understood what he meant. If he killed their parents, the ones who had hurt him would at least have to endure the emotional pain.

‘How did you change your name so easily?’ she asked.

His volume went up again. ‘It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t just a name, it was everything associated with it: being pathetic and weak.’

‘But how did you manage to become somebody else?’

‘I lived on the streets for a while. Someone helped me, they reckoned they could get new identities sorted.’

Jessica had a chilling thought of Harry handing over a brown envelope to a homeless man on the street. She remembered Peter Hunt’s wording in court. ‘Have you ever seen Mr Thomas act in a questionable way while on duty?’ She had said ‘no’ but was suddenly confused. Had that act indirectly led to all of this?

Her expression must have changed. ‘What?’ Randall said.

‘What are you going to do now?’ Jessica asked, hoping he didn’t force her to answer.

She felt his grip lighten ever so slightly. He blinked away more tears. ‘I don’t know.’

‘You don’t want to kill anyone else?’

‘I love her . . .’ Jessica knew he was talking about Caroline. He leant back slightly and she felt even more pressure release on her elbows. She could feel pins and needles but could probably free her arms if she needed to.

‘It’s why I wanted to get it all finished,’ he continued. ‘She came along and I wanted to leave Nigel behind. Once the four of them were finished with, we could have a life together. It was all over with.’

Jessica was playing for time. If she could get him to relax further, when the feeling came back into her arms, with her legs already free, she could surprise him and possibly get away. ‘Why did you lock all the houses after you left?’

Randall rubbed his ears again. ‘I didn’t want to get caught. I thought if your lot were busy looking at family members and trying to figure out how it all happened, you would forget to look for things like Nigel Collins. It worked, didn’t it?’

Jessica would have admitted that it had but didn’t want to let him focus on anything positive. ‘Can I ask you something?’ The directness clearly shocked him as he would have felt in control of the situation being on top. She didn’t give him time to answer. ‘Do you remember when the three of us were watching the news together that morning? You said the coverage was “sick” . . .’

‘I was talking about them using that old photo. With my face . . .’ Jessica knew he meant the one of him as a teenager with his features bruised and swollen. At the time she thought he had been talking about the murders themselves.

Her bluntness had worked and his tears stopped as he relaxed even further. The feeling had returned to both of her arms and the blurriness had cleared from her head. She thought about her options. Talking to him about letting her go or anything to do with the future would most likely anger him. He must know deep down his chances were hopeless. The only thing he could really do was either kill her and run for it or kill her and hope the investigators blamed it on Nigel Collins, not knowing he and Randall were one and the same.

Either way, her chances didn’t look good. She had to keep him off-balance. ‘How did you meet Ryan?’

It was a question completely out of the blue, something he wouldn’t have expected. He rubbed his ears again. ‘Ryan?’

‘Yeah, he was a nice guy.’

Randall shook his head slightly and stroked his neck with one of his hands. ‘Oh yeah, just around. We started playing pool together and . . .’

Jessica didn’t let him finish. She lunged forwards, using the spring of her free legs to propel him away from her. He yelled as he crashed backwards but as Jessica turned to run the few feet left to the front door, he flicked out with his foot and tripped her. She stumbled into the door, fumbling for the handle to open it. She had to take a step back to open it inwards but he slammed into her, crushing her between his weight and the door. Her arms were free and this time she reeled back and punched him as hard as she could in the windpipe. He stumbled fully back, obviously dazed.

Jessica let go of the door handle with her other hand and hammered the base of her palm upwards as hard as she could into the base of his nose. It was just as Harry had taught her and the same thing she had threatened to do to Wayne Lapham. Blood exploded over her arm and Randall’s face. She saw his eyes blink and close and quickly turned back to pull the door open, thinking she was free until she felt a hand grabbing her hair. Jessica’s face was slammed hard into the frame once, then twice as she felt consciousness slipping. She tried hard to focus, feeling her head yanked backwards.

She couldn’t open her eyes because of the pain but could hear Randall’s furious voice shouting behind her. Jessica couldn’t make out anything he was saying, his nose was most likely broken and his throat would certainly hurt from her two blows. She could hear him wheezing but couldn’t stop herself being dragged away from the door into her own bedroom and onto the bed. She was aware of what was going on but helpless to do anything about it, her head dazed and her limbs unresponsive. Jessica opened her eyes and could see him on top of her, tears running down his heavily bloodied face.

She thought she heard him say ‘I’m sorry’ and then felt his hands on her throat, squeezing. She could feel the pressure and was struggling for breath, not even able to kick her legs any longer.

And then she heard the front door open.

38

Jessica felt as if she was dreaming, her head hazy, like waking from a vivid dream and not being sure which reality is the correct one.

‘Rands? Jess?’

It was Caroline’s voice. Jessica was groggy but the pressure was instantly released from her throat. She could see a fuzzy grey colour but felt the weight lifted from her and get up from the bed. She tried to sit up but everything was in slow motion. There were voices from the hallway. She could hear shouting and thought she heard Caroline say something like, ‘What’s going on?’

Jessica managed to sit up and eventually stand. There were still voices coming from the hallway. She stumbled towards the door and into the hall, her vision still grey but she heard Caroline scream clearly. ‘Jess!’

As she looked across from her bedroom door towards the living room, Jessica’s vision began to clear, although her throat was on fire and breathing painful. Randall was standing behind Caroline with his front to her back but his left arm across her, hugging her into him. His face was a mashed-up mess. The red of the blood smeared across his features seeped into the grey that was affecting her vision and helped clear it. Jessica could feel blood on her face too. She must also look a mess.