He swung his legs out of bed. The house was quiet, but Carl wouldn’t mind being woken up.

Four Years Earlier: July 2014

DI Wynne

1

Wynne’s phone rang. A number she didn’t know, with an unfamiliar area code. Probably some telemarketing bullshit.

But maybe not.

‘This is Wynne.’

‘Detective Inspector Wynne? This is DS Liz Dales, from Alsbury.’

Wynne straightened in her chair. She reached for a pencil.

‘Yes. How can I help?’

‘We received a request related to a letter posted two days ago somewhere in the village. We were asked to review any CCTV footage that might show who posted it.’

‘That’s right. The request came from me.’

‘Well, we think we have it. We think we have the letter being posted.’

‘Who was it?’

‘A man in his late fifties, maybe early sixties. He lives here in the village.’

‘Thanks,’ Wynne said. ‘We’ll be there as soon as we can. Do nothing until we arrive.’

2

The letters had continued to come every year around the anniversary. There was no letter on the seventh year – like the third year – but other than that they came. Mocking, boastful, sick. They were posted in various locations around the north of England, dropped into a postbox by the man – she assumed it was a man – who had abducted Maggie Cooper.

Wynne had spent hours reading them, looking for some clue, but there was nothing. At least nothing in the letters themselves. She had wondered why he had missed the third and seventh anniversaries. There must have been a reason. It could have been as simple as illness, or laziness, but Wynne didn’t think so. She thought something had prevented him from sending them, something like prison, or a stint working abroad.

So she had checked the prison admissions in those years, looking for someone from the Warrington area who had been locked up in the third year, free in the fourth, and back inside in the seventh. There were one or two, but it had come to nothing. She checked the same with the Army; again, nothing.

And now she had the latest letter.

DEAR DETECTIVE INSPECTOR WYNNE:

EIGHT YEARS, DETECTIVE INSPECTOR. COMING UP ON A DECADE AND YOU’RE NO CLOSER TO FINDING ME OR MAGGIE. I SEE YOU IN THE NEWS FROM TIME TO TIME, COMMENTING ON YOUR INVESTIGATIONS. ARE THEY AS MUCH OF A FAILURE AS THIS ONE? YOU WOULDN’T SAY SO, WOULD YOU?

I’LL RAISE A GLASS AGAIN THIS YEAR! EIGHT LONG YEARS. AND THERE’LL BE ANOTHER EIGHT. OR MORE. YOU HAVE NO CHANCE, DETECTIVE INSPECTOR WYNNE, NONE AT ALL.

AND YOU KNOW IT, WHICH IS THE BEST THING OF ALL.

YOURS SINCERELY,

???

But this time, the sender had made a mistake.

And Wynne was not going to waste the opportunity.

3

The letter was postmarked Alsbury, a small village in North Yorkshire.