Knowing now she wouldn’t find her uncle, Annie took her leave.

‘I’d better be getting on, Martha, thanks for your help.’

Waving goodbye, Annie turned and was heading for the school when a horrid thought occurred her. What if Bill couldn’t account for his movements last night? Would he become a suspect in Lorna’s murder?

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO

Ninety minutes had passed since the pathologist had handed James the card that was found on Lorna Manning’s body. But the words inside it were still causing his heart to beat at a rapid rate.

Two down, ten to go.

Merry Christmas to the people of Kirkby Abbey.

He’d shown the card to DS Stevens before it was sealed in a bag and handed to a forensic officer. So far, only the pair of them, plus Dr Flint, knew about it. James hadn’t yet told Tanner because the DCI was on his way to Kirkby Abbey and would be put in the picture when he arrived.

The two detectives had finally found time to sit in one of the patrol cars so that they could talk about it.

‘Surely this is positive proof that Lorna Manning was killed by the same person who murdered Charlie Jenkins,’ the DS said. ‘The same psycho who delivered the dead partridge to your house.’

James nodded. He couldn’t really disagree.

James checked the photo on his phone of the first message he had received.

Here’s a Christmas gift for you, detective Walker. It’s a little early, I know, but I just couldn’t wait. My very own take on the twelve days of Christmas, complete with a dead partridge. Twelve days. Twelve murders. Twelve victims. And they all deserve what’s coming to them.

He showed it to Stevens and said, ‘That final sentence suggests that Charlie and Lorna were not randomly picked. The perp, for whatever reason, believes they both deserved to die. Or that’s just an excuse his warped mind has come up with to justify a killing spree.’

‘You shouldn’t assume the killer is male,’ Stevens said, his tone sharp.

James blew out an exasperated breath. ‘I’m not. But we both know it probably is a bloke since more than 90 per cent of homicides are committed by men.’

‘But there’s no clear evidence that this one was.’

‘I accept that, but we’ll refer to the perp as a “he” for now, just to keep things simple. Have you got a problem with that?’

Stevens shook his head and wisely chose not to argue the point. ‘Of course not, guv.’

‘Good. Now back to the case. We have to accept that it’s possible the killer thought Charlie deserved to die because he’d committed adultery at least twice, although we can’t know for sure if he would have known about the fling with Janet.’

‘But what about Lorna?’ Stevens said. ‘There’s been no suggestion that she’s done anything that could be perceived as seriously wrong.’

‘We need to look into that,’ James said. ‘Her son might have some thoughts on it.’