James watched her approach and cursed under his breath because he wished he didn’t have to tell her what was going on. But he had no choice for two reasons. Firstly, he wasn’t prepared to tell an outright lie when she asked him. And secondly, he needed to know if she had any idea who might have done it.

‘Is everything all right?’ Annie asked when she reached him, her breath steaming in the cold evening air.

James flicked his head towards the house.

‘Let’s go inside and I’ll tell you, hon,’ he said. ‘It’s freezing out here.’ He gave the officer the thumbs-up before he and Annie hurried along the short garden path and into the house. He had already cleaned up the kitchen so that she wouldn’t be confronted by the bloody mess on the floor.

He helped her off with her coat and scarf and went to make her a hot chocolate while she removed her shoes.

Then he told her what had happened while they sat facing each other across the kitchen table. He showed her the photos on his phone of the dead partridge and the message on the card. The colour drained from her face as she took it all in. When she looked up her eyes were dull with shock.

‘Please tell me that you don’t think this is anything other than a vile prank,’ she said.

He dragged in a loud breath and shook his head.

‘I can’t imagine it being anything other than that. But we have to be sure. I’m hoping that whoever did it left a fingerprint or something for the lab technicians to find.’

Annie stared at him, furrows texturing her brow.

‘My God,’ she said. ‘What if some crazed serial killer has decided to target the people of Kirkby Abbey? And us.’

‘Please don’t freak out, Annie,’ James said as he reached across the table to place his hand on hers.

But she drew it back sharply and snapped at him. ‘I’m not freaking out, and I’m not stupid either. You’ve more or less admitted that it might not be a tasteless joke. Therefore, shouldn’t you raise the alarm and warn everyone that they could be in danger? And at the same time flood the village with police officers?’

James fully appreciated where she was coming from, but he knew that the contents of the parcel wouldn’t be enough in themselves to trigger a full-blown investigation. It wasn’t uncommon for death threats to be sent via letter, parcel and email.

‘For all we know that’s exactly what the sender wants to happen,’ he said. ‘If it is just a stupid joke then the more people who get worked up about it the more successful it’ll be deemed to be. And we also need to bear in mind that if it’s not a hoax then there’s no way of knowing if the victims referred to live in this village.’

James could tell from the look on her face that she wasn’t convinced, but she decided not to pursue the subject. Instead, she remained silent, holding his gaze while gnawing at the edge of her bottom lip.