‘Angry enough to make you want to hit back at them?’ DS Stevens said.

Daniel looked at him, his eyes suddenly bright and alert.

‘I can see where this is going and the answer to that question is an emphatic no,’ he said. ‘I don’t hold a grudge and I’m not a bloody murderer.’

There was a sheen of sweat on his forehead now and spittle had gathered at the corners of his mouth.

James decided it was time to shift the focus onto the second murder.

‘Now, can you tell us where you were last night, Mr Curtis?’ he said.

A frown gathered on Daniel’s face and his eyes narrowed.

‘Why do you want to know that?’ he said, his voice rising. ‘Is it because of Lorna Manning? Do you honestly suspect that I did her in as well?’

‘We’ll be asking everyone we speak to the same question,’ James said. ‘So we’d appreciate an answer.’

‘Well, the answer is I was here all night with my dad,’ he said. ‘We both sat up watching the box until almost midnight. Then we turned in and I didn’t get up until ten this morning.’

James turned to Ron Curtis, who had a dark crease of worry above his eyes.

‘And did you have a good night’s sleep, Mr Curtis?’ he asked.

‘I always do, thanks to the pills I take.’

‘And these pills knock you out, do they? Enough that you wouldn’t necessarily have known if your son got up and left the house?’

The old man opened his mouth to speak but Daniel beat him to it.

‘Oh for fuck’s sake. This is getting silly,’ he snapped. ‘I did not go out and kill Lorna Manning. I’ve never spoken to the woman and I had no reason to want to hurt her.’

‘So why were you hanging around outside her school on Friday evening?’ James said. ‘Were you waiting for her to come out?’

Daniel looked surprised. ‘Did Giles Keegan tell you he saw me there? Is that why you’re asking?’

‘As a matter of fact, it was someone else who spotted you watching the school from across the road while smoking a cigarette,’ James said. ‘But tell me about Giles Keegan.’

‘There’s not much to tell. He was walking past on the other side of the road when he saw me. He crossed over and demanded to know what I was doing there. I told him he wasn’t a detective any more so to bugger off and mind his own business. But he started shouting at me, so after a minute or so I walked away so as not to attract attention.’

‘Why was Mr Keegan so angry?’ James asked.

‘We knew each other years ago, when I lived here. He was one of the coppers who testified against me and got me sent down. And he doesn’t like it when I come back to the village, even though I don’t usually stay for longer than a few days at a time.’