Her eyes grew wide. ‘What has that got to do with me? You can’t possibly think that I was responsible.’

‘That’s something we need to establish,’ James said. ‘So my first question is: did you purchase that card at the village store?’

She pushed out her bottom lip. ‘Of course I did. Where else would I have got it? They had loads in.’

‘And how many did you buy?’

‘Only one pack. That was enough for me. I still haven’t posted the rest.’

‘And do you know of anyone else who bought those same cards?’

‘Well, I know that old Ron did because he gave one to me when I was last over at his house.’

‘Do you mean Daniel’s dad?’

She nodded. ‘I’m one of his carers, as you know.’

James felt a flutter in his stomach. ‘So where is this card?’

Janet shrugged. ‘In the lounge. Go and see for yourself. It’s on the sideboard with the others.’

Seconds later James was holding the card in his hands. It was indeed the same design as the others, but the writing inside was very different from the killer’s scrawl. And just as with the card that Janet gave to Annie, the message inside was benign.

Merry Christmas Jan

Thanks for looking after me and for sharing all the gossip. It keeps me going

Ron x

James saw no point in wasting any more time on Janet Dyer.

‘You need to pull your finger out, Detective Walker,’ DCI Tanner said. ‘This is not good enough. I’m getting grief from all sides now. The Chief Constable, the local MP, the media. And I’ll soon be going into another press conference where I’ll have to admit we’ve made hardly any progress.’

It was the first bollocking James had received from a superior officer since coming to Cumbria. It was tame in comparison to some he’d had in the Met, but it still jarred.

Tanner was responding to what James had told him about how they were going with the investigation. The DCI had called him soon after he returned from Janet Dyer’s house.

‘With Daniel Curtis and Andrew Sullivan no longer in the frame we’re desperately short of suspects,’ Tanner said, stating the obvious. ‘And I’m nervous about hounding Giles Keegan. I know the guy well and it’s inconceivable that he’d do something like this. Plus, he still has plenty of friends in the constabulary.’

‘I’m not hounding him, sir,’ James said. ‘He was trying to start a relationship with our second victim and he may well have been the last person to have seen her alive. He’s also—’

‘I don’t believe that should count against him,’ Tanner interrupted. ‘And neither should the fact that he allegedly had a moan about perps escaping justice and claimed that some people living in the village should be banged up. Isn’t that the kind of thing most of us coppers say when we’re frustrated, angry and upset?’

‘I accept that, sir, but I still intend to have another conversation with him. I’ve got this feeling that he’s not being entirely up front with us.’