‘Now feel free to search the house, take me in for formal questioning, or even arrange for me to have a lie detector test. Just do everyone a favour and get it done quickly. I want this killer caught as much as you do and time spent with me is valuable time wasted.’

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

While they were in Keegan’s house the weather had taken a sudden turn for the worse. The snow was thicker now, heavier, and the wind drove it into their faces as they dashed towards DC Abbott’s car.

After starting the engine, she had to flick on the wipers so they could see through the windscreen.

‘Where to now, guv?’ she said.

‘Back to the crime scene. We need to see what’s going on there and find out when the chopper is due to arrive. But drive carefully and slowly.’

She pulled away from Keegan’s house, and said, ‘So what do you think? Did he convince you that he’s not a serial killer?’

‘If he is it’s hard to see how we’ll be able to prove it. That’s why I don’t think there’s any point going through the motions with him now.’

‘He invited us to search his house, though. We could have done that.’

‘You’re forgetting that Keegan used to be one of us. He knows the ropes. There’s no way he would have left anything in there for us to find.’

‘So who was this person who witnessed him and Daniel arguing in the village square?’

‘That was Annie, my wife. His account of the encounter tallies with hers.’

‘Well it certainly threw him. And so did what Lorna’s son told us.’

‘I agree, but having spoken to both him and Patel I don’t feel that we’ve moved forward. There still aren’t any dots for us to connect.’

‘What we need are more suspects,’ Abbott said.

‘You’re right. And there are plenty of them in this village. We just have to sniff them out.’

The snow had driven the gawpers away from the crime scene, meaning they missed the flying visit of the police helicopter.

It touched down in the field opposite the garden centre minutes after the two detectives got there. On board were a couple of SOCOs and a member of staff from the mortuary. The SOCOs had been planning to examine the area around the body but the weather put paid to that.

‘We need to beat the blizzard back to base,’ one of the SOCOs said to James. ‘The pilot reckons we’ll be stuck here if we don’t go straight away. Our instructions are to treat the return of the victim as the priority.’

Daniel Curtis was put into a body bag and carried on a stretcher to the chopper. It was all done in less than ten minutes and then the helicopter took off again.

The crime scene tape was removed and four marker cones were placed on the spot where the body had lain.

James told the officers that they would return to clear the snow and search for evidence once the weather had improved.