Earlier she’d spotted a newsflash on her phone about the skeleton in the cellar and naturally had questions about it, but it didn’t dominate the conversation during the rest of the evening, and James got the impression that she wanted to lighten the mood.

She was clearly finding the whole thing very upsetting, and that was on top of learning that Andrew Sullivan had been stalking them.

So much for the quiet life in Cumbria, he thought as he tucked into the casserole and listened to his wife talk about what she wanted to do with their baby’s room.

He couldn’t help wondering if deep down she regretted leaving London. After all, they’d been happy there before Sullivan was released from prison and made threats against them.

They had moved north in order to secure a safer and better life, in a place where crimes were few and far between and where they expected all of their neighbours to be honest and friendly.

But so far Kirkby Abbey had failed to live up to their expectations, and living here was proving to be more stressful than it had ever been in the big, bad city.

CHAPTER FIFTY

Sunday December 31st

For James it was another night blighted by dreams and troubled thoughts.

At one point a noise woke him and he got it into his head that Andrew Sullivan had broken into the house. He even climbed out of bed and went downstairs to investigate.

Needless to say, his nemesis hadn’t made an appearance and the noise was caused by the wind crashing against the back door. It was blowing a gale outside and at least a couple of inches of snow had fallen, settling on the lawn like a thick grey carpet.

He checked out the front too and was relieved to see that the surveillance team hadn’t deserted their post. But his relief was tempered by the fact that he knew that Tanner couldn’t post them there indefinitely. And even though they were armed, they really didn’t offer that much protection. A ruthless villain like Sullivan could surprise them by wrenching open a door and incapacitating both officers with a stun gun or taser. He had always been one of the most violent and devious of London’s crime bosses, and it was rumoured that he had killed more than a dozen people and ordered hits on many more.

It wasn’t helpful having him as a distraction at this time, but it was impossible for James to banish him from his thoughts. The threat he posed was real. It was especially disturbing to think that he had sent someone to Cumbria to take photographs of them.

The first thing James did when he got up at five was to text Leo Freeman, asking if the Met had made progress in the hunt for Sullivan.

Leo replied an hour later, just as James was about to leave the house.