Norman received him with ill-concealed distaste. “If you’ve come for Carl Hopkins, you’re wasting your time.”

“I need your help,” Rutledge told him. “I want the loan of Constable Petty. We need to patrol Eastfield at night, and Constable Walker can’t do it alone. If you want Petty to spy for you, you can spare him for my purposes as well. I’ll see that he’s put up at The Fishermen’s Arms.”

After a moment, Inspector Norman said with evident reluctance, “He has a cousin there. Works in the brewery. He can stay with him. I don’t want him beholden to you.”

Which, Hamish was pointing out, went a long way toward explaining how Inspector Norman had been keeping an eye on Eastfield.

Rutledge answered, “That’s fair enough. I’ll expect him there tonight.”

“It won’t stop your murderer. If that’s what’s in your mind. Even with three of you, you can’t be everywhere at once. It takes no time at all to garrote a man and then walk away.”

“It’s better than nothing,” Rutledge answered shortly. “There was someone in St. Mary’s churchyard last night. I followed him around the church itself, where I lost him, and then I heard a motorcar leaving without its headlamps turned on.”

Norman’s manner changed. “Is that the truth? Where was it heading? Which direction, did you see?”

“Toward Hastings. There were lights on in the rectory as well, but the house was empty. We searched for Mr. Ottley, and finally met him walking toward us as we came back into Eastfield from the Roper farm. He sometimes goes there to sit with the second victim’s father. But for a time, we were afraid he might have been the next target.”

“Ottley is a good man,” he said, defending the rector, “but sometimes he puts duty before common sense. He nursed the Spanish flu victims in Eastfield, day and night, without thought for his own safety. Before that, one evening when he was in Old Town, we had a ship in trouble off the East Hill. He went to the lifeboat station and offered his services if they needed another man. He’d kept a sailboat here in his youth. He’d have gone out with them.”

“He may be at risk, all the same. If Carl Hopkins is innocent. I’m not convinced that these murders are connected with the war. They may have to do with someone with a long memory for the past.”

“That’s the trouble with educating a policeman,” Inspector Norman said. “You’re easily distracted by ideas.”