Singh was as baffled as she was, and I turned away from them to look out of the window while they discussed what to do next. The sky was dark and soft white flakes were floating past the window with alarming frequency.

‘It’s snowing again,’ I pointed out to the detectives. ‘We’ll need to keep an eye on it, so we don’t get stuck.’

Forest frowned at my interruption, then turned to watch for a moment before replying. ‘It’s only light. Hopefully it’ll stay that way.’

Her phone rang, and Singh and I waited as she had a brief conversation with whoever was on the other end.

‘Finally, we’re getting somewhere,’ she said once she’d hung up, her eyes glinting with something that looked like triumph. ‘They collected a number of blood samples from the snow at the scene. Most of it was Steve Wilkinson’s, but there was another person’s blood too, and they’ve identified the DNA. It’s Leon’s.’

Chapter 13

There was a delay before we could continue with the interviews, while Forest called the lab back to double check their results and ask for more information.

‘Right, it seems they found Leon’s blood on the penknife that was used to kill Steve Wilkinson. So, he was definitely there at the crime scene, and is now our main suspect.’

‘We’re assuming Leon killed Steve and cut himself in the process?’ Singh asked with a frown.

‘That seems the most obvious answer,’ Forest replied. ‘The knife belonged to Steve. According to Mike Lowther he had used it a couple of times on the Friday night, cutting branches for kindling so he could teach the kids how to build a fire. Lowther thought he was showing off, though that probably says more about his attitude than his boss’s. I’m sure if Leon had cut himself with Steve’s knife before Saturday morning, we would have heard about it.’

‘Mmmm,’ Singh replied, looking out of the window with his arms folded.

I turned to Forest. ‘But what if Leon had come across someone attacking Steve? There could have been a struggle, and Leon could have been injured then.’ I hadn’t met the boy, but I still felt an urge to defend him.

Forest looked sceptical, and I thought she was going to snap at me for interfering, but she appeared to be thinking about my suggestion.

‘If that happened, and that’s a huge if, where is Leon?’ she asked.

‘The killer took him with them,’ Singh replied, and I shot him a quick smile for backing me up.

‘But why?’ Forest stood up and paced across the room a couple of times. ‘If you’re going to kill one person, and there’s a witness, why kidnap the witness? Why not just kill them too?’