‘Get hold of Bob. We need SOCOs at the scene immediately.’ Barrett pulled on his overcoat while talking at Elly, who was working her way through Eddie Kilpatrick’s diaries.

‘Palmer, we’re going to Burwell,’ he called across the room his voice cracking with exhaustion.

‘Burwell?’ Palmer looked up from his desk, the screen reflected in his eyes.

‘Yes, we have another one.’

‘Eddie Kilpatrick?’

‘That would be my guess.’ Barrett buttoned up his coat and ran his hand through his silver hair. ‘A body was found by a dog walker. It doesn’t sound like it’s in a pretty state. Unlike our previous victims this one had been hung from a tree by a fishing lake on the outskirts of the village.’

‘Not a suicide?’ Palmer asked, thinking about Susan and Marie.

‘Doesn’t sound like it.’ Barrett shook his head. ‘Let’s go.’

Palmer grabbed the half-eaten baguette that was sitting on his desk and followed his colleague out of the room. He always had an increased appetite in the winter.

‘Any other information?’

‘The victim is male. In his sixties or seventies. Hung by the neck. There is blood at the scene. That’s all I know until we get there.’

‘Sounds like our man,’ Palmer admitted as his heart sank.

With a new murder to add to the investigation, it was looking increasingly likely that he would not be spending Christmas day at home as planned.

The men drove to Burwell in silence, once they’d finally got away from the crawling winter traffic. The dark roads that led to the scene where the body had been discovered were eerily abandoned and the car bumped along the rough surface, its headlights on full beam. But there was very little to see. The fields around there were flat and the darkness seemed to go on forever.

Followed closely by two police cars it took them half an hour to reach their destination.

When they pulled onto Little Fen Drove, they spotted a man standing by a large metal gate on the edge of the lane. He looked cold. By his feet sat a Labrador covered in mud.

‘Over here.’ He waved the police down as Barrett pulled onto the kerb. ‘It’s over here.’ Roy stood shivering in the cold. Barrett suspected he had shock.

After pulling on shoe protectors and gloves the inspectors and the officers followed the man through the near darkness to the edge of the lake.

‘I’m not going any further. I’ve seen enough.’ The man stopped, trying to control the dog, which pulled hard on the lead. ‘Go round that way.’ He pointed left. ‘Keep to the edge of the lake and you’ll find it soon enough.’