‘Of course. James let me know. Where have you been? I rang you earlier but got no answer.’

‘I went to the garage to check on my car, but it was closed so I headed back to the pub. That’s when Martha told me about Daniel. I was going to call you, but as usual I couldn’t find my bloody phone so I just came straight here.’

‘Come into the kitchen and I’ll make you a hot drink. You look half frozen.’

She made him tea and put some biscuits on a saucer, placing it in front of him at the table. He warmed his hands on the mug, and said, ‘So what about Daniel, Annie? I hope you’re not going to lose any sleep over it. The man was a monster and he made your parents suffer so much.’

Annie felt tears pressing again her eyes and she had to blink to keep them back.

‘It’s just come as such a tremendous shock,’ she said. ‘I can’t get my head around it.’

‘I don’t imagine many people will be grieving for the bastard, Annie. So you shouldn’t.’

She knew that Bill was trying to be helpful, to console her, but she really wanted to be by herself. The news had filled her with conflicting emotions and she wasn’t yet ready to talk about them.

‘They’re saying it happened down by the garden centre, close to his dad’s bungalow,’ Bill said. ‘And that he was stabbed just like Charlie Jenkins and Lorna Manning.’

Annie nodded. ‘It’s the same killer all right. And that makes it even more unsettling.’

‘Well, it’s about time that husband of yours found out who it is, Annie. I don’t understand why that’s proving so difficult in a village as small as this.’

Annie sat back and ground her teeth. She would have told him that he was being unfair if it wasn’t for the fact that she agreed with him.

The killer was making it seem so easy, and at the same time he was making the police – and James – appear incompetent.

‘I actually saw Daniel last night,’ Bill said. ‘He was drinking in The King’s Head.’

‘Did you speak to him?’

‘No, I steered clear. If he’d tried to talk to me, I would have told him to shove off.’

‘So he must have been killed soon after he left there,’ Annie said.

‘I suppose so. I saw him walk out after Martha rang the closing time bell.’

‘And what did you do?’

‘Finished my drink and went up to the room.’ He grinned suddenly, showing tobacco-stained teeth. ‘Don’t worry, Annie. I didn’t go after him, if that’s what you’re thinking.’

‘Don’t be daft, Bill. That would never enter my head.’

His grin grew wider and Annie felt a shiver grab hold of her spine.

‘Now that’s a fib, Annie, and we both know it. You and James got it into your heads that I might be the murderer. James made it obvious last night over dinner with all his questions. I cottoned on to what he was doing pretty early on, but it didn’t bother me then and it doesn’t now. I know that I’ve been acting weird and that inevitably makes people suspicious.’