“Please, no one do anything stupid before I get there,” she muttered as she parked her car behind Liam’s. “Please, don’t let anyone do anything stupid once I arrive.”

She popped the boot and took the only thing resembling a weapon from it—the tire iron. She made her way up the muddy path, slipping twice. Although she couldn’t see anything in the dark and didn’t dare turn on her torch, she knew where the grave sat. She made her way as quietly as she could.

A thin beam of light and voices could be heard as she approached the clearing. Sophia could only see two figures in the dark and she squinted to try and make out who was kneeling on the ground at the edge of the pit and who was standing with a gun behind him. As Sophia took a few steps closer, she could make out Liam’s figure and voice. Liam held the gun.

That’s when she decided to step out into the clearing.

“Liam,” she said. Neither man noticed her so she yelled a bit louder. “Liam!”

This time, both men turned to look at her. Liam did not look happy.

“What the hell are you doing here?” he asked. He didn’t move the gun from Stewart’s head and soon after, turned back to him. “You shouldn’t have come. How did you find me?”

“Are you crazy?” she asked.

“Tell your boyfriend that he’s making a mistake,” Stewart said.

“Shut up,” replied Liam. He kicked the back of Stewart’s leg and Stewart cried out.

“You bastard. You think you’re going to get away with this? My men will hunt you down.”

“Liam, listen to him. You’re not thinking straight. We’ll eventually bring him to justice. You don’t have to ruin your life this way.”

“Ruin my life this way? Stewart ruined my bloody life long ago. The only difference now, I’m not going to let him ruin any more lives. So, Evans, just drive away from here. You don’t need to witness this.”

Sophia approached. “You’re not a cold-blooded killer.”

“You don’t know anything about me.”

“I know that once you kill someone, you can’t take it back.”

Sophia actually thought she saw the gun start to go down but she must have been mistaken because after Liam shook his head, the gun was moved closer to Stewart’s head.

“I’m determined to do this, Sophia,” he whispered. “And I really need you to walk away.”

“I’m not going to leave you, Liam.”

“What do you want? If you’re looking for money, I have plenty. What do you want?” asked Stewart, turning his head toward Sophia. He didn’t dare look at Liam.

“Money? I wouldn’t take any of your bloody money,” said Liam. “You don’t even know what you’ve done.” He leaned down and whispered. “Kendra Foxton. You just remember that name because it’s the reason you’ll be lying dead in that pit in a minute.”

“I don’t even know who that is,” he replied. “You’ve kidnapped the wrong man.”

“Shut up, you freak. You know her as Katelin.”

Stewart laughed. “You two are spooks? You’re not going to kill me.”

He started to raise himself off the ground, but Liam kicked him again in the same leg.

“Shit,” he yelled and rubbed his leg. “Yeah, I remember her, she was stupid. That’s why she was killed. If she’s dead, it’s because she was a lousy spook—”

“Shut up,” Liam yelled.

“What the hell are you doing, Stewart?” Sophia asked. “You want him to kill you?”

She put her hand on Liam’s shoulder, she could feel him shaking. “He’s just winding you up and it’s not worth it. Just walk away. Come with me. We’ll go on holiday together. My father has property in Greece. We can go to Greece, we can get away, just the two of us.”

“Get lost, Evans.”

“I’m not moving.”

“I mean it, Evans, walk away. Now.”

“I’m not moving. It doesn’t have to end badly, Liam. Please, Liam, please. You can’t do this, you can’t kill him. I can’t be a party to this. I can’t let you do this.”

“Then walk away.”

Liam was visibly shaking now. He took a step back and breathed in deeply.

“Okay,” said Liam. He lowered the gun by his side.

Stewart’s shoulders relaxed and he sat down on the ground. Neither man was the one she knew only a day before. How did her life ever get so complicated? This could have ended so wrong.

“Let’s go home, Liam. We can leave Stewart here to find his own way.”

“Okay,” came Liam’s whisper.

Sophia turned to go and heard a gun explode behind her. Time slowed around her as she fell to the ground. She smelled the grass and felt the breeze as she rose to her feet.

“What have you done?” Sophia asked.

Stewart lay face down in the mud at her feet.

“You need to go, go right now.” He put the gun away, under his jacket, grabbed her arm and dragged her toward her car. “I’ll clean everything up. Don’t worry about me. Go to your flat and talk to no one, we were together all night. Do you understand? Do you understand?”

He shook her.

“You shot him.”

“Focus. Everything will be all right.”

Chapter Fifty-Six

Just as Theo and Dorland were about to visit Dorie Armes, Walter Peters walked into the station. Theo caught his eye immediately and directed them to a small sitting room where they could talk privately.

“What is it?” Theo asked him.

“I was going through my wife’s belongings, and I found this. I don’t know what to make of it.” He handed Theo a small red notebook. “I don’t know if it’s real or . . . I don’t know. I hope it’s not real.”

Theo sat down and started reading:

I’m writing all this down now because I don’t know what the future holds. I don’t really want to go through with the plan but I think I may be forced to in the end. To protect the others, I’m not writing down any names. I just need everyone to know why I did it.

Sometimes I wonder if I dreamt the whole thing because I’ve had plenty of nightmares before. I keep going over the day we planned it all, wondering if I misunderstood. Perhaps it was all a big joke. But it can’t be, can it? Things like this are never a joke.

I was in the lift at the hospital because Mrs. Cho had given birth the night before and I was on my way to check up on her. Suddenly, there was a jolt and the lights went out. We had just passed the second floor. I heard someone ask if someone had pressed the stop button.

I hadn’t paid any attention to who was on the lift with me, so I didn’t even know how many people stood with me in the dark. However, a minute later, when a dim yellow emergency light came on, I saw that two women and I were the lift’s only occupants. I remember we talked about the reasons why the lift would have stopped. One suggested that there could be a fire in the building and the other a terrorist attack. I know they said it because they were scared. I know I was scared, but I suggested we should avoid all worst case scenario discussion while trapped.

We waited in silence for about ten minutes but it felt like hours. Eventually a man, probably a lift repairman, asked through the sealed door if anyone was in the lift. We all cried yes in unison. He informed us that he didn’t know why the lift had stopped or how long we would be stuck inside, but promised that the lift wouldn’t fall.

I remember remarking that we were in a government hospital and so the lift was bound to be old and in disrepair. We all had a laugh about that.

Slowly we relaxed and all of us took a seat on the floor. We introduced ourselves. For the sake of this narrative I will say there was D, the nurse, E, the hairdresser, and me, the doctor. It was like a joke: A doctor, a nurse, and a hairdresser walked into a bar. In this case, it’s a lift and in the punch line: no one wins. Well, at least I don’t feel I’ve won. I should’ve been stronger. I’m a doctor, for goodness sakes, but the hairdresser, she was the instigator.

How does one even bring up killing someone? We joked about it. I mean, who hasn’t? We’ve all wished someone was dead, haven’t we? Our boss. Our spouse. Our parents. Our neighbors. But we never do it. Thinking about it now, I’m sure I thought she was joking all the time.