‘It goes some way to explaining why the small right-hand fingers were removed from each victim,’ Bob continued dangling the carrot.

‘What does?’

‘Once I caught a fish alive.’

‘You mean like the nursery rhyme?’ Barrett said frowning and scratching his head.

‘Exactly. The letters were carved using some sort of sharp instrument, most likely a knife.’

‘Okay.’ Barrett’s brain was whirling again.

‘I’d say the victim was killed late on Friday. He’d been hanging there for some time. Rigor mortis had set in.’

Barrett nodded jotting all this down. ‘Thanks for letting me know.’

‘You’ll have my report in the morning.’ Bob yawned. ‘Oh, and one last thing. He was alive when the words were cut into him.’

In Fulbourn, Susan sat upstairs in her bed surrounded by all of Eddie’s remaining diaries. Flicking through the pages, looking at his handwriting and remembering days gone by, she struggled to focus on the words. The sleeping pill Marie had given her was clashing with the alcohol she’d consumed.

Downstairs below her she could hear her daughter pacing the living room and crying.

Numb from the medication and booze, Susan was determined to keep going through the diaries nonetheless. She didn’t know if she was looking for anything in particular but having them with her made her feel closer to her murdered husband.

Opening a diary that was from 1983 she came across initials she didn’t recognise. Scribbled on every Monday for over six months were the letters GM, then, all of a sudden, the initials stopped appearing.

Susan searched for the diary he’d kept in eighty-four and scoured the pages for those same initials, but they were nowhere to be seen. Then, in a bizarre moment of clarity, perhaps brought on by the multiple substances swirling around her system, Susan remembered that was the year she realised Eddie was having an affair; and she suspected GM was the woman in question. Susan let out a long sigh and let the diary fall to the floor. The identity of the woman in question was no longer relevant, but she still needed to know. In the morning she’d ask Marie if she had any idea who GM was.

Lying back on her bed, her head sinking into the pillow, she thought back to those days. She’d been so cross, so hurt by Eddie’s betrayal, and in that moment those feelings came flooding back. For the first time since she’d been put to bed by her daughter, Susan finally let herself cry.

Chapter 24

8.45am Sunday 23rd December

Marie sat on the sofa staring at the television, which wasn’t on. Upstairs, her mother was asleep in bed having taken a heavy dose of sleeping tablets.

Only the Christmas tree lights were on creating a soft glow in the living room, which was otherwise gloomy.