Everything that came after grew from those two folded lines.

Chapter 6 — Ten O’Clock

By a quarter past nine I was back in the car.

At ten exactly I slipped through the unlocked iron service gate and crouched behind the brick wall of the estate’s rear storage shed.

And then I heard it — a sharp impact, and a low, muffled sound of pain.

I put my eye to the narrow gap in the shutter.