‘I know, Jock, but people get angry, and anger makes them do stupid things. Sometimes, people simply don’t like anyone who’s different, and Mary was different all right. Like we all are.’ Sandra’s words were unsettling.

‘What?’ It was Fred who spoke.

‘Oh, I know they say I’m odd for growing everything myself. They call us “do-gooders” and “hippies”. I got called a gypsy in town once. It was a young boy; can you believe the cheek of it?’

They were different; there was no getting away from it. They wore old fashioned clothes, they grew their own food, they were private and they smiled a lot. Like the witches of Salem they were anomalies, and they knew full well that anything that deviates from what society deems to be standard or normal is treated with suspicion. It was human nature, and they knew that when they took their oaths. So did Mary. Jock had finally left in the early hours and she’d listened to Fred wandering the house all night.

Sandra sat down next to him and reached her hand out to his lap. He slowly turned his head and looked at his wife.

‘Oh, Fred,’ she said, taking him into her arms. He allowed himself to be held and his shoulders heaved with the agony of what had happened. He didn’t need to speak.

Chapter 26

Kelly drove towards Keswick and went beyond the town to Braithwaite, which sat nestled at the foot of the Whinlatter Forest. It was a hub of bed and breakfasts for walkers, who started the fine routes to the fells beyond Grizedale Pike and the Hobcarton Horseshoe. The largest peak in the area was Grasmoor, and the views from the summit were staggering on a bright day, such as it was today.

The O’Reillys lived in a small cottage, off the beaten path, outside of the village where Mary had resided. They weren’t a family on her radar, and they hadn’t flagged up on regular police checks. Fred and Sandra O’Reilly seemed like law-abiding citizens who’d had a shock; that was all. Kelly was on her way to visit them to gain her own impression, though. And she’d brought Rob along with her.

‘She was a bit of a hermit as far as we can make out, and yet she had this friendship circle – and quite a close one – meeting regularly in the village hall. Have we tracked down the other people who attended yet?’

Fred had supplied the police with a list of names, and they were being contacted simultaneously. Mary’s killer could be one of them.