Back downstairs, James told Sonia that they were taking some objects away for analysis. She didn’t even bother to ask what they were and this suggested to him that either she had nothing to hide or she knew they wouldn’t find anything incriminating.

As she went up to the bedroom, James instructed one of the uniforms to hang around until the family liaison officer arrived. He then thanked Beth, Josh and Father Silver for staying with Sonia. Beth and Josh left immediately, but the priest held back, eager to have a quiet word with James.

‘That poor woman had nothing to do with her husband’s death,’ he said. ‘I am absolutely certain of it. Her grief is real and she simply doesn’t have it in her to commit murder. Surely you can see that.’

‘You might well be right, Father,’ James said. ‘But we have to go through the motions. The fact is, she had a good reason to be angry with Charlie, which gave her a motive. And there’s no one to verify her story that she was in bed asleep when it happened.’

The priest shook his head. ‘My mind keeps leaping back to the card that was left for me at the church, Detective Walker. I’m convinced that the message inside it was from someone other than Sonia Jenkins. Surely that’s obvious.’

‘I’m inclined to believe you, but we haven’t established a link between the cards and Charlie’s murder, so we can’t just assume that there is one – we need proof. In the meantime, we have to handle this investigation like any other, which entails identifying and interviewing potential suspects.’

‘Does that mean you’re still not prepared to make public the existence of those cards and messages?’ the priest said.

‘It does, Father. And for the same reason I gave you before. It would serve only to scare people and cause panic.’

The priest tilted his head to one side for a few moments and sucked on his bottom lip in concentration.

Then he said, ‘Well, I just hope that you know what you’re doing, Detective. I would hate for someone to die because the police decided not to warn people that their lives are in danger.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

The priest’s words continued to play on James’s mind as he and DS Stevens left The White Hart. But he was forced to accept that there was no simple answer to the problem that confronted them.

In London, which had a population of almost nine million, it wouldn’t have mattered so much if the anonymous threat was made public. But Kirkby Abbey was a community of only seven hundred residents and so the impact on the villagers, if they got wind of it, would be far greater.

He could just imagine how some would react, especially elderly people living by themselves and those with children. It just wouldn’t be fair to instil fear in them if the threat did indeed turn out to be a hoax.

‘Where to now, guv?’ Stevens said, breaking into James’s thoughts.