‘How horrendous,’ Fiona said. ‘Her parents must be in bits. And Bex.’

That had been an unfortunate turn of phrase, but nobody commented on it. Bex had been calling, desperate for news. But she wouldn’t go to Gritton.

‘Eighteen,’ Craig muttered. ‘A kid. What’s the matter with people?’

‘I’m hopeful we’ll find prints or DNA on the bag or the boots or necklace,’ I said.

‘It’s unbelievable,’ Craig muttered. ‘I still can’t believe someone would feed an eighteen-year-old girl to pigs. That’s seriously fucked up.’ I’d never seen Craig like this before, but he did have kids of his own and Violet was barely more than a child, bikini-prancing notwithstanding. She’d got to him.

‘Come on, Craig.’ Richard hauled himself out of his chair and stood radiating heat. ‘We treat this like any other case.’

‘Looking at the slightly less photogenic Gary for a minute,’ Jai said, ‘we’ve confirmed he was killed by blunt force trauma to the head. He was struck with a rock from behind and then hit several more times. He was propped against the tree post-mortem, and someone put a mask on his head. A mask made from real pigskin. The good news is we found fibres on him, and a hair that wasn’t his. And we’ve got his phone, so I’m confident we’ll have more leads to follow up soon.’

‘That’s great,’ I said. ‘And I want us to have a good look at Mandy. She had a motive to kill both Violet and Gary if she found out about the affair. Also Anna and Daniel. And Kirsty. There’s this secret to do with the Pale Child. And I suspect they’re involved. What else do we have?’

‘I found out what Daniel must have been about to say about his brother,’ Fiona said. ‘Charlie Twigg died back in 1995 after saying he’d seen the Pale Child. He was only eight, and for some reason he wandered off to the reservoir. He managed to climb up to the rim of the spillway. Fell down it and died.’

‘Oh God, that’s awful,’ I said. ‘That must be what Kirsty’s kid, Frankie, referred to. She mentioned a boy and that hole at the reservoir.’ Poor Daniel. I’d been trying not to think about him but he’d kept creeping into my mind. Flashes of him saving the lamb. Confident and compassionate. ‘Is that the reason for all the fences?’ I said.

‘Yes. And then in 1999, Daniel’s friend Lucas died after the barbecue where Bex was raped. The car accident that Daniel went to prison for. Lucas also claimed he’d seen the Pale Child in the woods that night.’

‘So people have actually seen the Pale Child and then died,’ I said. ‘It’s not all made up. Why didn’t we check this before?’