‘Quite by chance. We found out that he’s been using two post office boxes that were registered under an alias. We obtained a warrant to open them and in one there was a letter from a property management company in Dumfries informing him that the monthly check on the house had been carried out and everything was in order.’

‘So, you don’t even know if he’s been there,’ James said.

‘Oh, he has, but only the once and that was back in June. He signed the lease that day after viewing the property. He paid for the full three years in advance with a single bank transfer from an offshore account we didn’t know he had.’

‘And presumably he showed them fake documents.’

‘Indeed, he did. Passport, utility bills for a phony address and a false driving licence. Everything he would have had on tap.’

‘Have you been there yet?’

‘We have, but he’s not there. That doesn’t mean he won’t soon turn up, though. Those who know him believe he’ll flee abroad as soon as he can, but we’re convinced he’s still in the UK. That’s why we placed the house under surveillance. And it’s why I thought you needed to know as you might want to take extra precautions.’

‘I don’t understand,’ James said, before the penny dropped.

‘Think about it,’ Leo told him. ‘To get to that part of Scotland he’ll almost certainly drive through Cumbria. And he might not be able to resist a short detour to Kirkby Abbey.’

On the way home James’s thoughts were spinning in all directions. The threat posed by Andrew Sullivan had reared its ugly head again and he wasn’t sure how to respond to it.

There was no way of knowing if the guy would head for the house he was leasing near Dumfries, which was only eighty miles away from Kirkby Abbey. And even if he did then surely the odds were against him making a pit stop in Cumbria – unless he was determined to exact his revenge before it was too late for him to do so. It was a grim possibility that could not be ignored.

The only way for James and Annie to be completely safe would be for them to move away for a while. But that wasn’t really an option at the present time. So, they would just have to carry on being vigilant, at least until the Bateman case was solved. He could then seriously consider more drastic action such as taking Annie on an extended holiday in the hope that the Met would either find Sullivan or be able to confirm that he’d left the country.

James exhaled long and hard, trying to release the knot of tension inside him. But it wasn’t easy with so much going on.