‘Is someone killing people involved with that website?’ Mandy whispered. ‘First Violet, now Gary. Animal rights people. And oh my God …’ She wrapped her arms around Kelly’s ears as if shielding her. ‘A pig’s head!’

‘I’m sorry you saw that,’ I said. ‘I’d advise you to stay off social media and please don’t discuss this with anyone. It could jeopardise the investigation.’ I wished we could shut down the whole of the internet, so people could tell us what the hell they actually knew, rather than parroting some crap they read on Facebook.

‘But why?’ Mandy said. ‘Why would they do that to Gary? He’s not a bad person.’

‘Do you know anything else that makes you think this is aimed at people on the Great Meat Debate website, other than what you’ve seen on social media?’ I asked.

‘I don’t know. I don’t know anything. Gary saw the Pale Child too. I told you. He saw her on Monday night in the woods.’ I remembered Fiona’s comment. If anything happens to Gary, we freak the hell out. Should we be freaking the hell out? We hadn’t looked into the Pale Child myth in any detail. It had seemed like nonsense. Just an unhappy coincidence that Violet had seen her and then gone missing. Now I wasn’t so sure.

‘What do you know about the Pale Child, Mandy? Who is she?’

‘I don’t know!’ Mandy cried. ‘I don’t know who she is!’

‘Okay. This must be very difficult for you.’

I let her cry for a moment, and indicated to Jai that he should carry on. He kept his voice soft. ‘Why did Gary go to the abattoir on Sunday night?’

‘He said he was doing extra work.’

Jai frowned, but in a friendly way. ‘In the middle of the night?’

‘Yeah.’ She looked down at Kelly.

‘You need to tell us, Mandy. Don’t worry if you’re not sure if it’s relevant.’

Mandy fiddled with a strand of Kelly’s hair. ‘I suppose you may as well know. What does it matter now? I think Gary had taken some money from the abattoir business.’ She looked up, and shifted herself upright. ‘We should have been entitled to it anyway. Why should Anna have been left everything instead of Gary? And Tony Nightingale – Kirsty’s dad – gives money to the abattoir as well, but even then Anna can’t make it profitable. She’s not capable of running it. She spent all that money doing the place up, just for some pigs that were going to die anyway. Gary was sure he could have done a better job.’

I exchanged a look with Jai. ‘Did Gary take the money for anything specific?’ Jai said.