I hesitate at the top of the stairs. I could lock myself in the bedroom and call the police but it would take them ages to get here, and I would most likely be wasting their time.

Oh how I wish I didn’t live alone. Being single means there’s no one to help or advise me. No one to tell me I’m being over cautious. No one to give me strength.

I decide after a few moments that I have no choice but to go down, so I turn on the landing light and take one careful step at a time.

I reach the hall and see that the front door and the windows either side of it are intact. That means the damage is in either the living room or the kitchen.

The living room is the nearest so I push open the door and switch on the light. But to my relief the windows aren’t broken.

When I enter the kitchen a couple of seconds later it’s a different story. A glass panel in the door that leads out onto the patio has been smashed. But what alarms me even more is the fact that the door itself is open and the wind is whistling through it.

As I step forward to close it two things happen.

First, the light I just turned on is suddenly switched off and the room is plunged into darkness.

Second, I hear a voice behind me saying, ‘Now it’s your turn to die.’

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

Monday December 19th

Monday morning arrived with rain showers over Cumbria, which caused much of the snow that had settled in and around Kirkby Abbey to turn to slush.

James watched with dismay from their bedroom window. It was only half five and still dark, but he could see the mess it was making of the street in front of the house.

It never ceased to amaze him how extreme and changeable the weather could be in this part of the country. It sometimes went from snow to rain to blazing sunshine over the course of a day. It was one of the reasons he hadn’t been keen to move here. It could be so disruptive, so annoying, so bloody unpredictable.

‘Are you coming back to bed?’ Annie asked him.

They had both been awake for ages, but he’d got fed up with lying there stressing over what needed to be done today.

‘No point, hon,’ he said. ‘I can’t sleep and I don’t think either of us is in the mood for morning sex. So I might as well crack on. Shall I make you a cup of tea?’

‘Yes please. I think I’ll get up as well.’

‘What have you got on today?’

‘I thought I’d go and spend some time with Bill and then attend the church service that Father Silver is holding for Charlie,’ she said. ‘After that I’m going to the school. It’s closed now for Christmas, but Lorna asked me to go in for a couple of hours to help with the end of term tidy up.’