‘And was she?’

‘Not really. Like everyone else, she was shocked and upset.’

‘So how long did you stay there?’

‘A couple of hours, I think. I left about five because she said she had some school work to do.’

‘And how was she when you left?’

‘Much the same. She was struggling to understand what’s going on in the village and she kept saying how worried she was for the children.’

‘Do you know if she intended to meet up with anyone else later in the evening?’

‘She told me she was going to bed early. I asked her if she was planning to go to the church service for Charlie and she said she was.’ There were tears in his eyes now and phlegm rattled noisily in his throat. ‘I assume you’re linking the two murders. But please tell me you’re making some headway. The villagers are rightly terrified.’

‘Well, as you more than others can appreciate, it’s early days still,’ James said. ‘But we do suspect the same person is responsible.’

‘So we’ve got a serial killer in Kirkby Abbey.’

James shrugged in a noncommittal way. ‘I don’t suppose you have any idea who it might be?’

Keegan took offence at that, shaking his head and fixing James with a belligerent stare.

‘Don’t you think I would tell you if I knew?’ he said. ‘I’ve been racking my brain but getting nowhere. None of it makes sense. This is a small village in Cumbria, for Christ’s sake. It isn’t crime-ridden London.’

Keegan fell silent for a few seconds, his wet eyes distant, his lips trembling.

‘Sorry about that,’ he said eventually. ‘But this is all so close to home. I had feelings for Lorna and I can’t believe what’s happened to her.’

Stevens asked him if he had managed to find out why Lorna had been crying that day by the stream. The DS also pointed out that several people, including Father Silver, had mentioned that she had often appeared depressed.

He nodded. ‘I’m sure there was something bubbling beneath the surface, but she wouldn’t tell me what it was, and I wasn’t inclined to push it. I wish now that I had. Do you think it had something to do with why she was killed?’

‘We don’t know,’ Stevens said. ‘It’s possible.’

‘We’ve just come from interviewing Daniel Curtis. He told us you had an encounter with him on Friday evening,’ James said. ‘Can you explain what that was all about?’

Anger flashed across Keegan’s features. ‘Sure, I can. That pervert was standing outside the school. I saw him when I left the nativity play. He must have been waiting to ogle the girls.’

‘So what did you do?’

‘Told him to shove off. The guy’s a nonce, and I should know because I was part of the team that helped get him convicted.’

‘And did he resist?’

‘He started to but then thought better of it and left. I hate it when he comes back here to see his old man because I don’t trust him.’