Jake felt a chill; the bent old man sitting at the table actually believed he was within his rights. He pulled Campbell to his feet, gathered his fragile wrists behind him and snapped on the restraints.

Kelly had moved to stand next to Max. ‘So, O’Brien and Campbell were both involved in this from the beginning. I guess your hunch was correct, Hunter. Solid work …’

‘No worries.’ Jake wasn’t sure how else to respond.

‘I suppose it was Campbell who killed Ava to silence her,’ Kelly continued. ‘Then when O’Brien realised who’d done it he attacked Campbell here in the kitchen, and finally Campbell decided to end it once and for all by killing O’Brien.’

That wasn’t a theory Jake had put to his superior officer. Where was Kelly headed with this?

‘Aiden! I never touched Ava or Liam, you know that.’ Campbell remained indignant.

‘No, Mason, I don’t know that,’ Kelly said slowly. ‘What I do know is I let my personal relationship with both of you blind me.’ He looked at the ceiling. ‘That I could have spent time under your roof, and even brought my family here. It sickens me.’

This didn’t make sense. Why was Kelly trying to pin Ava’s death entirely on Mason? Given his physical fragility, he couldn’t have moved Ava. He might have killed her, but he wasn’t capable of carrying her body across the vineyard to dump her. That would have required someone else’s involvement.

Kelly unclipped his own handcuffs.

‘Max Campbell, please stand. I’m arresting you on suspicion of rape and being an accessory after the fact in the murder of Ava O’Brien.’

Kelly had apparently decided it was Max who carried Ava’s body into the vineyard. That it was Max who Jamie Taylor had seen in the fog last Friday morning.

‘Huh?’ Max looked stunned, even as he complied with Kelly and stood to put his hands behind his back.

‘Ava and Liam O’Brien mutilated the girls, and the two of you raped them.’ Kelly snapped the cuffs tightly around Max’s wrists. ‘And when he told you Ava was going to start talking, you either killed her and dumped her body yourself, or helped him move the body after the fact.’

‘You’re absolutely mad,’ Max said. ‘I had nothing to do with any of what my father has done.’

The idea that Max Campbell might have been involved also rang hollow to Jake.

‘You’re desperate to return to the mainland, to your wife. Perhaps you were an accessory after the fact in O’Brien’s sister’s murder.’

Max was shaking his head murmuring, ’No, no.’