Jessica swung violently with her legs as the man lunged down on top of her, sitting across her midriff and pinning her arms to the floor. She heard a clattering noise as something bounced to the ground. He was a lot stronger than she would have thought and no matter how much she fought, she couldn’t escape his grasp. His eyes locked on hers; they were fierce and staring, although he seemed completely in control of himself. ‘Just go with it,’ he said.

As Jessica tried to struggle, she could feel her arms and legs heavy with the effort. Her mind was alert but her body wasn’t reacting to her commands. She didn’t know how much time had elapsed while he was on top of her but it didn’t feel long before he stood. Jessica couldn’t move her neck far but saw him crouch and pick up an empty syringe from the floor. She tried to move but her limbs weren’t responding.

‘I really didn’t think that would work,’ he said, a mixture of confusion and amusement on his face.

35

Jessica wanted to speak but her lips wouldn’t move and she could feel a small amount of drool around the corner of her mouth. The man went into the kitchen then returned without the syringe. He picked Jessica up and leant her against the wall so she was in a sitting position.

‘Sorry about that,’ he said. ‘I don’t want you to swallow your tongue or something stupid.’

Jessica’s mind was screaming ‘GET OFF ME’ but no words were coming out.

The man stood back and looked her up and down. ‘If it’s any consolation, you’re right, I am Edward. It’s pretty clever figuring it out from those photos. If I’d thought it through, I would have hidden those ones but the left-right-handed thing didn’t even occur to me. I wanted you to find the rugby photo and so on. As you say, I wanted people to know what those animals did to Samantha. I was hoping it would get on the news a bit more so they would be exposed but it didn’t quite work as I hoped. The problem with this unfortunate situation is that it might never come out now.’

Jessica was trying to stay calm and focus on breathing. It wasn’t hard exactly but felt slightly unnatural because she found herself thinking about it. She felt so stupid – she had literally fallen for the oldest trick in the book. Someone had said, ‘Look over there’ and, while she had, they’d seized their chance.

Edward sat cross-legged on the floor a few feet away from her, his head tilted slightly. ‘Pancuronium if you’re wondering. It’s a muscle-relaxing drug. When my father was ill in his later days he was in a lot of pain and his doctor prescribed it. Small doses would help him sleep but I managed to keep plenty of it over the final few months. Larger doses of it leave you in a state, well, like you are in now. As you can probably tell, most of the other men were bigger and stronger than me, so I needed something in my favour. Jacob was a bit different but it was easy enough to spike his drink. This is quite a useful little drug really. It takes around a minute to kick in and then, depending on the person’s size, can last for anything up to three hours. I didn’t want to take any risks with Jacob because he’s a big guy.’

Jessica continued to focus on her breathing. She had never heard of the drug but didn’t doubt the things Edward was telling her were true. Her arms felt floppy and useless by her side and she fought to move one of them a small amount. She realised she wasn’t totally paralysed but certainly couldn’t do much more than twitch her right arm.

Edward scratched his chin, appearing a little unsure. ‘As I’m sure you know by now, this wasn’t really part of the plan. I don’t actually know what to do with you. I’ve got this storage unit in the city with two big chest freezers. I got them about a year ago from this supermarket that went out of business. After I’d killed them, that’s where I kept the bodies before going back for the hands when I needed them. I’ve never had a live victim in the house so I’m at a bit of a loss because my tools are all there.’

He stood and paced before walking into the kitchen and returning. He sat back down in front of Jessica and started playing with a large kitchen knife, moving it from one hand to the other and staring closely at the handle and blade before looking back to her. ‘This is a pretty good knife, you know. I like cooking and I use it a lot. I don’t really want to have to throw it out but it’s not as if I can use it on you then go back to chopping carrots tomorrow, is it?’

He laughed slightly as he spoke. ‘This is like one of those big movie moments, isn’t it, where the dastardly crook reveals everything to the plucky secret agent, who is seemingly in an impossible situation but the agent then somehow escapes.’ He shuffled forward and poked Jessica in the shoulder. ‘You’re not going anywhere though, are you?’

Edward stood and put the knife deliberately on the floor close to Jessica, then stepped towards her, picking her up and holding her over his shoulder. She felt sick, her head hanging limply against his back. She bobbed up and down as he walked toward the area where the pool was being built. Edward pushed through a plastic curtain, then placed her gently on the floor, propping her up so she could see the room before he left.

Jessica couldn’t do anything other than twitch her arms but it was suddenly obvious what he had done with the bodies of the other men. When she had seen the room before, the whole area was covered in plastic sheeting and she hadn’t bothered to look. It was uncovered now, revealing a giant pit in the centre of the room where the pool would go. The surface wasn’t level, with some areas far deeper than others and a few sections filled with concrete that had set.

Edward entered back into the area with the knife and set it down on the floor next to Jessica. Instinctively she tried to move towards it but her limbs were incapable of responding. He started to walk around. Plastic sheeting was pinned to the ceiling and shielded the gaps in the walls where the windows would go. Jessica could hear the rain falling but it sounded louder because, aside from the sheets, there was nothing to separate them from the outside. Edward talked loudly as he wandered around the space where the pool would be before ending up back next to Jessica.

‘I know you’re not stupid so you’ll know by now that this is where all those bodies ended up. Charlie, Lewis Barnes, Jacob Chrisp, Matthew Cooper and Steven Povey are all in the foundations of the pool. I’ve got a company coming around on Thursday to put the sealant in and get a proper bottom down. For obvious reasons I’ve had to do a lot of the foundations myself; I couldn’t really get a company in to help me bury bodies, could I? I don’t really know what I’m doing. This other company dug it all out for me and I’ve just been burying them then pouring the concrete into the space they dug. It was actually a little easier than I thought.’

Edward paused and coughed, kicking a bit of plastic sheeting before continuing. ‘When you were around the other week I was worried you’d take me up on the offer and have a much closer look around here. The covering sheets were all out and luckily you didn’t pay too much attention. There were no bodies on show but it was a bit of a mess. I dreaded it every time you came around because, on the second occasion, Charlie’s phone went off. I’d been keeping it just in case but obviously forgotten to turn it off. I was surprised the battery hadn’t died.’

As he finished his loop, Edward crouched near to the edge of the pit. ‘There’s still a space at this end and I’ve got loads of cement left. It’ll be a waste of a day and I’ll have to do something with your car but at least the driveway’s long enough so no one will see it for now. I’m a bit pissed off you spoke to the neighbours actually but I can just say you came and went. I’ll think of something. Maybe I’ll use your phone to send a text then ditch it?’