Kelly hadn’t before met the man who’d found Carla Rigg wandering around naked in the early hours of last Monday morning. She’d read his statement, and those of his wife and children, but now she came face to face with him, and she was struck by his calmness: he reminded her of Johnny. The realisation jarred her, but she soon gathered herself and sat down when she was invited, as did Rob. Annie busied herself fixing refreshments.

‘We’d like to ask you a few questions about Mary Hales and how you knew her.’

‘Still haven’t caught anyone, then?’ Joe asked. Kelly felt the question to be rhetorical.

‘No. Sadly not. Our inquiries are ongoing. We’re piecing together movements of the deceased and where she might have been, or who she might have seen before her death.’

‘We didn’t see her very much. She was Fred’s friend, really. I met her a few times at parties, at his house: you know, garden barbecues in the summer, that sort of thing. I thought – we thought – she was a lovely woman.’

‘Everybody has said that,’ Rob said. Annie put tea in front of them on a small table, as well as some biscuits. Rob took one happily.

‘When was the last time you saw her?’

‘Probably last year. She looked well and was in good spirits, as she always was.’ Joe saw Kelly looking at Annie and added, ‘My wife wasn’t there.’ Annie turned away from her husband and began washing pots at the sink.

‘Mrs Spencer? When was the last time you saw Mary?’ Kelly asked. The woman stopped washing and took off her gloves. She turned back to face them.

‘I really can’t recall, I think it was at Fred’s, one Sunday a few years back. All the times I saw her she never struck me as down, or worried, or scared; there was no hint of thinking she might be in danger. I really can’t get my head around what happened.’

‘Thank you. What you’re both telling us really echoes everybody else’s statements who knew her. It leaves us the question of a random attack. I have another question for you, though. There are rumours, and have been articles in the press, about black magic and Pagan worship. Of course, it’s conjecture and might be nothing, but I wondered if you ever saw any evidence of independent religious worship going on with Mary, or indeed Fred. Did they ever talk about a particular kind of gathering where they attended and worshipped spirits, for example?’

Kelly waited. She noticed that Joe shifted in his seat and looked uncomfortable. Kelly felt a damn fool. She was ready to tell the couple to forget her last question when Annie Spencer tutted loudly.