An eerie feeling washed through Dani as she took in Grant’s words. His appearance, his voice, his manner, weren’t creepy – in fact Dani thought he was handsome, in a fatherly, older guy sort of way – but the fervour with which he spoke about such ghastly things was quite unsettling.

‘Let me explain myself a bit more clearly,’ Grant said. ‘You’ve heard of Harold Shipman, haven’t you?’

‘Of course,’ Dani said. ‘He was a doctor. Believed to have killed over two hundred elderly patients.’

‘Making him one of the most prolific known killers of all time,’ Grant added. ‘It’s believed he killed his victims over a span of more than twenty years before he was caught. And his method, it has to be stated, was simplistic. Yet to some extent it was faultless too, allowing him to carry on killing for many years. These weren’t gruesome murders that captured the attention of the press or the police. There was no crime scene clean-up to think about, per se. For years no one suspected a thing, because his victims were all old people anyway, and he was a respected doctor, a respected member of the community. His signature on someone’s death certificate, recording that they died of natural causes, or from some other age-related ailment, bore a lot of weight.’

‘But he was caught,’ Dani said. ‘It took many years but the police did get him in the end.’

Grant huffed. ‘No offence, but I’m not sure I’d say it was down to some super-brain detective. Many people have suggested Shipman may well have wanted to get caught. That he was out of control and was ready to give himself up.’

‘Did he ever say that?’

‘Not that I’m aware. Suspicion about him first arose when a local funeral parlour queried the coroner about the unusually high number of Shipman’s elderly patients who were being cremated there. Isn’t that such a simple oversight by him? Why didn’t he move location so that there was never such a build-up of evidence in one place, connected to one surgery? Surely that would have been obvious to someone who really wanted to keep going.’

‘But just because he got away with murder for many years before that, doesn’t mean he was a genius.’

‘Certainly not. I would point out though, that even that initial suspicion didn’t bear much weight with the police. They passed off those concerns saying there was insufficient evidence of a crime. He went on to kill three more people in exactly the same way as before. He could have called it a day when he knew the police were closing in, but apparently he couldn’t stop himself. Do you know how the police finally got him?’

‘No.’