Carol nodded. ‘I’m fine. Look at those guys. It’s gradually dawning on them that they’ve just been involved in something that’s going to earn them pints in the pub for years to come. I can hear them now: “Did I ever tell you how I took on a serial killer?” Though the real hero is the dog. Flash saved me.’ She rumpled the dog’s mane. ‘You’ve got him on assault and attempted abduction at the very least.’

‘Well done,’ Paula said. ‘That’s all we need to get warrants for his house and his car and his workplace.’

‘Even someone as single-minded as Fielding can’t ignore this,’ Carol said.

Paula shook her head. ‘Unless she thinks they were in it together, him and Tony.’

‘I think that would be a bridge too far, even for her.’

‘I wouldn’t bank on it.’

‘Are you going to take him in and interview him?’

‘I’ll get Cody to take him in. I want to be with the team that does the house search —’ Her phone rang and she reached for it. As she listened, her face grew grave. ‘I understand. You need to notify DCI Fielding directly, I’m pursuing another line of inquiry right now. And make sure CSI are on standby.’ Paula ended the call and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath.

‘Trouble?’

‘This case gets uglier all the time. We thought we might have a third missing woman so I sent a patrol car to her home address. They’ve just radioed in to say they’ve spotted what appears to be the dead body of a white male through the garage window. Sounds like Marie Mather’s husband got in the way of what that bastard wanted.’ She jerked a thumb over her shoulder towards the patrol car. ‘Nailing him is going to be a pleasure.’

In one sense, Banham village was the last place people would expect to find a serial killer. It straddled the Yorkshire–Lancashire border, changing its allegiance with every local government reorganisation since the War of the Roses. Grey stone cottages formed a tight triangle round the village green, a Norman church at the apex. Beyond the village centre were clusters of houses that had accreted like cankers over the past three hundred years, a mishmash of styles that had evolved its own distinctive character over the centuries. It had avoided being swallowed up by the urban sprawl of Bradfield thanks to the deep cleft of a valley that separated it from the main thrust of urbanisation. Banham wasn’t the easiest commute in the area, but it was definitely one of the most desirable.