He was right. She did a quick calculation in her head: the drive to Martindale would take about fifteen minutes and it would take them an hour to get up to the summit of Steel Knotts and back down. She acquiesced. It was only half past seven. It was just a matter of months since she’d travelled to London for a case and spent a week in her old stomping ground. Johnny told her that he’d thought that she might be swayed to go back: lured by the thrill of working with a murder squad – fifty strong – darting around the capital. But nothing was further from the truth. She’d spent ten years in London, slogging her guts out, to be stitched up in the end by a man she trusted. The return home, to Cumbria, had come at a price, but that was behind her now. Three years into her new role, she was putting down roots. She looked at Johnny’s bottom as he hopped up and down, trying to get his running kit on: it wasn’t just her job that kept her in the Lakes.

‘Hold the coffee.’

Kelly got out of bed and went to her cupboard, looking for her running kit. She felt Johnny’s eyes on her and turned around. Her long auburn hair fell about her face and she knew that her body was strong from three years hiking the fells: the hills and peaks she’d so long ignored when she’d been obsessed with promotion in the Met. He turned away and shook his head. They didn’t have time to run and make love.

The sunshine flowed through the curtains and she knew that the south shore of Ullswater would be quiet. They went downstairs and Johnny grabbed their water bottles and his car keys. As she slammed the door behind them and walked to the car, Kelly left the darkness of her nightmares behind her, where they belonged.

There was plenty of time to deal with The Teacher: a killer who’d walked into her head and screwed up the rule book. And who still wanted to be part of her life. Amy Richmond wasn’t the type of killer to stop. She enjoyed it too much.

Chapter 3