Mandy sighed. ‘Gary wanted to buy Anna out. It should always have been his anyway. Most parents leave a business to the older sibling, or the boy. It was never fair.’

‘Gary was stealing money from the abattoir, because he wanted to buy the abattoir?’

‘Yes. That’s why it wasn’t really stealing. He took some money and then invested it to get more. And he changed the people who took the waste away to one who did it for free, and kept the money. Why pay someone when another company will do it for free?’ So that made sense of Maggot Mick. Mandy was watching us, silently acknowledging that she knew exactly why you might pay a reputable company to take away your diseased and discarded animal matter. ‘He did sometimes lose a bit on the horses. You must have noticed all our decent stuff’s gone.’

And there was your clue as to why the business might have been left to Anna.

‘Why does Tony Nightingale give money to the abattoir?’ I asked.

‘I’m not sure. He wants everything in the village to be nice, I suppose. Like those Victorians used to with their villages. His family’s been in charge here for a long time.’ I pictured Tony Nightingale in his old-fashioned kitchen, the dog’s laser-like focus on the biscuit tin, the roses going wild outside.

‘And did Gary see Violet at the abattoir on Sunday?’ Jai asked.

‘He didn’t tell me. But he was in a funny mood yesterday.’

As we waited for Mandy to elaborate, Kelly sat up and nestled herself into her mum’s side, back still to us, drawing Flossy to her. I thought of the bright kid asking us to watch TV with her, and my heart broke a little. Even if Gary had been a dodgy bugger, he’d loved his daughter.

‘On Monday night, he went out and met Anna, Kirsty and Daniel in the woods. That was when he saw the Pale Child. I knew …’ Mandy wiped away a tear. ‘I knew something awful was going to happen. The Pale Child is back because of the drought. The old village has come to the surface again.’

The drowned village. The Pale Child. I shook my head. How could it possibly be relevant?

‘And they met in the woods to discuss Violet?’ I said.

Mandy hit us with her hollow-eyed look. ‘Yes. They thought the animal rights people had hurt Violet and they would be next. But then yesterday evening, Gary told me all our troubles were over.’

‘All your troubles were over? Did he tell you what he meant by that?’

She shook her head and looked down again. ‘I thought he must’ve come on some cash.’

‘How?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘You didn’t ask him?’