‘I appreciate this is a shock, but I have just one more question. We’ve discovered that your husband did know Dennis Wade. His name appears in your father’s diaries.’ Barrett addressed only Marie since Susan seemed incapable of talking or thinking straight. ‘Can you tell us anything about their relationship?’

Wiping away the large tears that were falling down her face Marie paused for a moment and thought. ‘They played golf sometimes a while back. I’d not heard Dad mention him for years.’

‘Do you know how they met?’

‘Maybe through the golf club.’

‘Which club is that?’ Palmer asked removing his notepad.

‘The Gog Magog Golf club,’ Susan said with no emotion.

‘Thank you.’ Palmer smiled kindly. ‘We are going to leave you with Julie now. Again, we are very sorry not to be delivering better news.’

By midnight the incident room had quietened down. The officers were all seated at their own desks working on the new case and filing reports.

Barrett sat alone in his office going over things in his mind. Since discovering a link between Dennis and Eddie he was sure that Wendy also knew the other victims. It was possible she too was a member of the golf club. He remembered seeing all of her activity photographs on the wall in her house, but he didn’t recall seeing any evidence of golf.

Picking up the phone he called the mortuary. ‘Can I speak to Bob Roland please. DCI Barrett here.’ He closed his eyes and rubbed his right temple with his free hand. After a moment Bob came to the phone.

‘Ian.’ He cleared his throat.

‘Can you tell me if there were any golf clubs at Wendy Matlock’s house?’

‘Not that I recall,’ Bob replied. He found the question strange.

‘It seems we can link Eddie Kilpatrick to Dennis Wade through a golf club and I wondered if that was also the link to Wendy Matlock.’ He sighed with exhaustion.

‘Not as far as I remember, but I can check the scene of crime photographs and come back to you on that.’ He paused for a moment. ‘You sound tired.’

‘I am,’ Barrett admitted before he could stop himself. It wasn’t like him to confess to such a thing.

‘You should go home. Get some sleep. This will still be here in the morning.’

‘Sleep?’ Barrett chuckled. ‘Do you sleep well when working an active case?’

‘I’ve learnt to.’

‘Lucky for some.’

‘How were the family?’ Bob thought he already knew the answer to this question but felt compelled to ask.

‘Awful,’ came the simple reply.

‘Nasty business,’ he said looking down at the dirty overalls he had on. ‘Anyway, I thought you’d want to know that I was right about the torso. A message was cut into the body.’

‘Message? What message?’ Barrett sat upright suddenly feeling wide awake.