‘I won’t be sure until I get it back to the lab and get him cleaned up,’ Bob admitted, now examining the stump where the small finger had once been. ‘You don’t need me to tell you, but this is different to the others.’

‘Our killer seems to be getting more violent.’

‘Yes,’ Bob said gravely ‘and more confident.’

‘I’m going to leave you to it,’ sighed Barrett. ‘I need to go and break the news to his family.’

‘Rather you than me,’ Bob said puffing out his cheeks. ‘I’m more comfortable dealing with the dead. They don’t cry.’

‘No, they don’t.’ He looked up at the glassy bloated expression on the victim’s face and felt a real sense of sadness.

Had Eddie Kilpatrick begged for his life? Did he know the end was coming? Pushing away the questions that were trying to get into his head he made his way back along the edge of the lake leaving Bob and his team to work the scene.

‘Time to break the news to Mrs Kilpatrick,’ he said to Palmer who was chatting to one of the uniformed officers. ‘I didn’t think we’d be visiting her again today.’

‘No, neither did I.’ Palmer played with the house keys that were in his pocket just as his mobile phone began to ring. Elly Hale’s name appeared on his screen.

‘Hello, yes?’

‘I’ve been going through the diaries. I’ve found a name. Dennis Wade appears on a number of occasions in the calendar from 1995 through to 1999. Then there is no mention of him again. It’s odd. Most of the entries which have Dennis Wade also have the word golf written next to them, but there are couple of time when the name appears on its own.’

‘I want you to write a list of dates when the name appears and email it over to me.’ Palmer put his hand up to stop Barrett who was about to interrupt. ‘We’ve found Eddie Kilpatrick and we are on our way to break the news to his family now.’

‘Oh dear.’ Elly sounded genuinely upset.

‘We’ll speak to the family and then come back to the station. Prepare yourself for a long night and tell the others, too.’

‘Will do. Are you alright?’

‘I’m fine,’ Palmer replied defensively. It was not the sort of personal question he was comfortable with. ‘We’ll see you soon.’ He hung up.

‘Elly has confirmed that Dennis Wade’s name appears in a number of the diaries.’ Palmer filled Barrett in on the conversation.

‘Let’s get over there and arrange for a FLO to meet us outside. That family are going to need all the support they can get.’

‘At least they don’t have to ID the body.’ Palmer was grasping around for a silver lining.

‘Yes. At least we can spare them that.’