Kelly watched as spittle gathered at the corners of Fred’s mouth. He was on a rant and she allowed him to continue, in the hope that he’d let something out that she could finally fucking work with. It was refreshing and she wanted to egg him on further. She sat back and watched the show. It was his turn to bang his fists on the table. The uniform tasked with chaperoning the detectives moved forward, but Kelly motioned to him that everything was all right. Will came back in the room. Fred glared at him.

‘We’re rotten to the core! Politics, police, doctors, banks! All of you! Money, money, money! Me, me, me! Fake, fake, fake! All of it! There was no helping poor Daphne, no more than we could have stopped him butchering Mary. For all we know, he took Edna’s William and abused him too.’

‘He wasn’t the only one, Fred. There are thousands of missing children in this country. Have you heard of Kevin Good? And the animals he tortured? Did you know about that? It wasn’t just a wren bonfire he liked. Dogs, cats, sheep, livestock? High Rigg? Birkett Mire?’

Fred’s pained face changed in a moment.

‘Birkett Mire? He talked about that place all the time. He raved about it, how the land was sacred and no one should be able to claim it. He said that the alignment from Castlerigg at Mabon was the most important of all: even more than the solstice at Stonehenge.’

‘Now you remember what he talked about? This is better, Fred, come on, tell me.’

‘Y-yes. I know. I—’

‘So Threlkeld is special because of the alignment? But what is special to him? How does he regard a special place such as that? Does he live there? Pray there? Kill there? We sent a car to have a look round and they’ve reported nothing. What about this place he boasted about, was that Threlkeld? Wait a minute. Was it anywhere near Thirlmere? Off the Great How turning to Raven Crag?’

‘He stayed wherever he could in what he could. A stolen campervan would do.’

‘A campervan? What model?’

‘I never said he still had it…’

‘What model?’

‘Fiat.’

‘When was the last time you saw Jock?’

‘Yesterday morning.’

Chapter 53