I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear any more but I’d promised Winter. ‘So you kept on going?’ I asked.

‘Yeah,’ he said. ‘I wish to God I hadn’t. I really do. It wasn’t much further before there was more blood. A lot more blood. When I saw the hand, I knew for sure that this wasn’t about the sheep.’

I swallowed. ‘It was … dismembered?’

‘And chewed. At least three of the fingers had definite bite marks.’ He looked at me. ‘They didn’t look like they’d been caused by an animal.’

‘You think they were human?’

He was so quiet I had to strain to hear him. ‘I do.’ His voice cracked. ‘Just beyond the hand there was a head. The eyes…’ He shook his head, the horror too great to put into words. ‘And the smell was horrific. I’ve dealt with dead animals before, it comes as part of my job. But this was something different. It feels like the reek of it is still caught in my nostrils. Decaying and sickly sweet.’ He stared at me. ‘I don’t know if it will ever go away.’

That was interesting. I knew from the files that Benjamin Alberts had been missing for less than five hours before his body was discovered. Even with the little I knew about forensic pathology, it didn’t seem possible that he could have already smelled that badly. Unless Gareth had magnified it in his mind because of the trauma of what he’d seen.

‘For a second, I couldn’t move,’ he told me. ‘It felt like an hour but it was probably only a minute or two. Then I turned and ran back down to the farm and called the police. They did the rest.’

‘I’m so sorry it was you who found him,’ I said softly.

He avoided my gaze. ‘I keep thinking I shouldn’t be feeling like this. After all, I’m fine. I didn’t get hurt. I didn’t know the guy who was killed.’ He pressed the base of his palms against his temples as if he could drive out the images of what he’d seen by sheer physical force. ‘But I can’t get it out of my head. It’s always there. I don’t know what to do. Can’t you help me? If you’re a witch, maybe you can make me forget. There must be some potion or herbs you can give me which will make all this go away.’

There were certainly herbs that could dull the sensation of memory. They were a weak salve at best, however; once they wore off, the returning trauma was often worse than before. And runes wouldn’t help. Not here.

‘There’s no magic spell,’ I told him honestly. ‘But I do know someone who might be able to help. Just give me a few moments.’

I slid my phone out of my pocket and stepped away from him. There was a heaving grunt from a man straining to lift a set of weights so I moved further towards the door.