Half a dozen officers whose shifts had started late would remain in the village overnight. They would take turns patrolling on foot and in a marked car and remaining in the village hall. Hopefully that was going to make the people of Kirkby Abbey feel safer and stop them from panicking.

These days it wasn’t possible anywhere in the country to have large teams of officers working around the clock. There just weren’t the numbers, and even hardy coppers needed to sleep and rest.

The Cumbria Constabulary covered an area of some 2,613 square miles, including 200 miles of coastline, and the county had seen a significant increase in crime in recent years. And yet there were only just under 1,500 officers.

James had been given an assurance that he would get all the people he needed, but he knew that would depend on how long the investigation lasted and whether there were other major crimes or incidents that would need to be resourced. That was why the predicted storms were of such concern. You just didn’t know how many serious problems they’d throw up.

Unfortunately, this wasn’t going to be one of those cases where everything quickly falls into place and it doesn’t take long to narrow down the list of suspects. Two murders meant double the amount of work and things would get tougher and vastly more complicated if more bodies turned up.

James had worked on two serial killer investigations during his police career. But the victims in both cases had been picked at random by psychopaths who murdered for the sheer pleasure of it, and the killings had taken place at various locations around London. This was so very different.

In this case, the first two victims were known to each other and had lived in the same small, rural community. It seemed likely that they had also known their executioner. The perp appeared to have a warped but organised agenda and he wanted to draw attention to his mission through weird messages in pretty Christmas cards.

James was frustrated because there were so many questions that they still couldn’t answer. For instance, why were the killings linked to the Twelve Days of Christmas? Would the killer really try to claim that many victims? What could have triggered such a murderous spree? And what made the perp think he could carry on killing with impunity in a village with a population of barely seven hundred people?

‘Shall we make a move, guv?’ DS Stevens said, breaking into James’s thoughts.

James nodded as he threw on his coat and wrapped a scarf around his neck.

A patrol car was waiting outside for them with its engine running. Their first stop was going to be Ron Curtis’s house as his son Daniel had finally turned up there and they had arranged to interview him.

James wasn’t looking forward to meeting the man who had seduced Annie when she was a teenager, but he had to admit he was curious to know what Daniel Curtis was like.