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Chapters (42)
  1. Chapter One
  2. Chapter Two
  3. Chapter Three
  4. Chapter Four
  5. Chapter Five
  6. Chapter Six
  7. Chapter Seven
  8. Chapter Eight
  9. Chapter Nine
  10. Chapter Ten
  11. Chapter Eleven
  12. Chapter Twelve
  13. Chapter Thirteen
  14. Chapter Fourteen
  15. Chapter Fifteen
  16. Chapter Sixteen
  17. Chapter Seventeen
  18. Chapter Eighteen
  19. Chapter Nineteen
  20. Chapter Twenty
  21. Chapter Twenty-One
  22. Chapter Twenty-Two
  23. Chapter Twenty-Three
  24. Chapter Twenty-Four
  25. Chapter Twenty-Five
  26. Chapter Twenty-Six
  27. Chapter Twenty-Seven
  28. Chapter Twenty-Eight
  29. Chapter Twenty-Nine
  30. Chapter Thirty
  31. Chapter Thirty-One
  32. Chapter Thirty-Two
  33. Chapter Thirty-Three
  34. Chapter Thirty-Four
  35. Chapter Thirty-Five
  36. Chapter Thirty-Six
  37. Chapter Thirty-Seven
  38. Chapter Thirty-Eight
  39. Chapter Thirty-Nine
  40. Chapter Forty
  41. Chapter Forty-One
  42. Chapter Forty-Two

‘No.’ Ashworth thought Connie understood where this was leading, but she pretended ignorance. ‘Veronica was early. I was still clearing up at the back of the house. She came to the kitchen door and gave me a bit of a shock.’

Vera gave the huge grin of approval that made everyone included in it feel like the most important person in the world. ‘So, hypothetically of course, Veronica could have hoyed the bag into the weed patch on her way round the side of the cottage. She wouldn’t know the bairn would be playing out there this afternoon.’

‘Hypothetically,’ Connie said, ‘I suppose she could.’

They stood up. ‘Does the name Danny Shaw mean anything to you?’ Vera asked.

Connie frowned. ‘No. Should it?’

‘You’ll see it on the news first thing in the morning. He was a student. He was strangled this afternoon at his home just up the valley.’

Connie was suddenly tense. Ashworth could see that her instinct was to gather up her child and run away with her, to take her somewhere safe.

‘The same killer?’

‘Not necessarily,’ Vera said. ‘But the cases are linked. We’re sure the cases are linked.’

Of course the cases are linked, Ashworth thought. But proving the connection was another matter entirely.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Ashworth had expected Vera to drag him to the Eliot house immediately, although it was so late. He’d sensed her excitement when Connie Masters had described Veronica’s visit, and Vera had never been the most patient of people. But standing by the cars outside the cottage, she surprised him by saying they’d call it a day.

‘You don’t want to speak to the Eliot woman?’

Vera looked up to where the big house gleamed white in the darkness. ‘Do you think she was staring at us earlier? Is she wondering what we’ve found out about her? I bet she was upstairs at one of the bedroom windows with a pair of binoculars.’

‘Maybe.’

‘We’ll let her stew then, shall we? Give her a sleepless night and go to see her tomorrow.’

‘Do you fancy a pint?’ he asked. His way of making his peace with Vera. He’d sensed her antagonism earlier in the day. They were like a bickering married couple, he thought. In the end, they couldn’t survive without each other and one of them had to give in. Usually, it was him.

‘Thought you’d never ask, pet. Tell you what, it’s my treat. I got a few bottles of Wylam in last time I was in that shop in Hexham where they do the fancy local produce. Come back to mine and I’ll do you a sandwich too.’