The Lost

Now here he was.

Leaning forward on the edge of the bunk, Jonah put his head in his hands and pressed the heels of his palms into his eyes. Trying to blot out the image of Corinne Daly’s body inside the locker. His fault. He might not have killed her himself, but it was because of him that she’d died. He’d underestimated Owen Stokes. Badly. He’d been so fixated on his own agenda, on trying to discover what bearing the carnage at the warehouse might have on what happened to Theo, that he’d overlooked what Stokes might do next.

And how desperate the man might be.

Thanks to Jonah, he was on the run and had lost the money from Gavin’s bedsit. Because Jonah no longer had any doubt at all who he’d heard outside. It had seemed fanciful at the time, but he of all people should have realised what Stokes was capable of. He’d seen first-hand what he’d done to Nadine, to Daniel Kimani and that other poor bastard in the warehouse. Christ, he’d even watched him bundling up and dragging away Gavin’s body.

Yet even after Stokes had brazenly broken into Marie’s house, Jonah hadn’t seen the danger. He’d naïvely assumed the man would compliantly accept the role of fugitive, too busy trying to avoid being caught to be an active threat. The idea that he might hold Jonah responsible for what had happened, that it might be personal for Stokes too, had never occurred to him.

And Corinne Daly had died because of it.

It seemed clear now that Stokes must have broken into the garage twice, the first time more subtle, to plant Corinne’s body there, and the second to make the forced entry more visible when no one reported it. And the recording she’d made in the flat must have seemed like a gift, tying up Jonah’s guilt in a neat bow.

He banged his hands against his head. Oh, you fucking idiot! Stupid, stupid, stupid!

But the outburst soon burned itself out. Self-recrimination wouldn’t get him anywhere, not now. Taking a deep breath he sat up straight, trying to calm himself. To think. He didn’t know why the journalist had been targeted. But Stokes was a killer, that much was obvious. Even leaving aside what may or may not have happened to Theo — and Jonah knew he couldn’t afford to go down that rabbit hole now — he’d already murdered at least four people. He was unlikely to baulk at one more.

Perhaps Corinne had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time, tarnished by her association with Jonah and a convenient prop to frame him. The question of why Stokes would bother to do that still troubled him, but right now that was less important than what the twisted bastard might be planning to do next.

And what Jonah could do about it.