‘Oh, but we always come this way.’

There were four women, all in early middle age, with their hair tied back and their faces flushed and healthy. They were in bright cagoules and striped leggings, like a gaggle of multi-coloured sheep. They had probably left their husbands at home washing their cars or playing golf.

‘Not today, I’m afraid, ladies,’ said Wragg firmly. ‘Please take another route.’

‘He’s very polite,’ said one woman.

‘Have you the right to stop us walking along here?’ asked another in a different tone. ‘It’s a public right of way, after all.’

‘That’s right – it’s marked on the Ordnance Survey map.’ The third one produced the map as evidence and pointed at it triumphantly.

‘All the same . . .’ said Wragg.

The women began to turn away. But the second one paused and glowered at Wragg.

‘You’d be better off making it safe for people to go about their business rather than stopping us using public rights of way. Get the man who’s attacking women, that’s the best thing you can do.’

PC Wragg watched them go. ‘It’s not my fault,’ he said to their retreating backs.

‘You’ll have to get used to that,’ said his sergeant. ‘As far as the public are concerned, it’s all your fault.’

The man in the green bubble jacket was still manoeuvring for a closer approach, watching the officers until they were distracted by something else, then creeping a few inches nearer.

‘So help me, I’m going to thump him if he gets in reach,’ said PC Wragg. ‘Just the sight of him makes my skin crawl.’

Of course, Ben Cooper realized that the black Peugeot was familiar. It was just that he hadn’t expected to see it here. Maybe it was destined to follow him around for ever, like a kind of ghostly hearse, with a phantom undertaker at the wheel.

‘It’s Diane Fry,’ he said.

Todd Weenink cursed some more. ‘Oh great. First the Wicked Witch of West Street, DI Armstrong. Now the Frozen Bitch from the Black Country. God, we could do without this. Stand by for a laugh a minute.’

‘I thought she was already gone,’ said Cooper.

‘Fry? I wish.’