There was also the Catholic church of St John’s, which was supposed to have closed at the start of the year because of falling numbers in the congregation. However, just like the primary school, it had secured a reprieve, thanks to a funding boost from a campaign to save it and a government grant, and had been given a fresh lease of life with the appointment of a new priest.

It was a quiet village and, before last year’s murderous rampage, had been crime free, save for the occasional act of vandalism committed by bored youths. The county at large also had a low crime rate and was regarded as one of the safest areas to live in the UK.

The Constabulary consisted of over two thousand personnel, most of them active police officers, and operated from fourteen stations, including the one at Kendal where James was now employed.

As a detective inspector, James was one of the most senior officers based in the market town and had a highly professional team working with him.

Though not everyone welcomed him with open arms when he’d started. There were some who viewed him as an outsider and resented the fact that he had been given the job that another long-serving detective had expected to get. Others just couldn’t fathom why he would want to move from the busy metropolis to a county where nothing much happened. His stock answer was that he and his wife no longer enjoyed living in London and so had seized the opportunity to move to Kirkby Abbey after Annie inherited the family home from her mother.

He’d not told most people the real reason; only a small number of his superior officers were privy to that information.

The twenty-five-mile drive to Kendal took James through some of Britain’s most stunning countryside, and as the sun had made an appearance, the landscape was displayed in all its glory.

Winter had stripped the fells of life and laid down a carpet of snow that was criss-crossed by a web of low dry-stone walls. Wind ruffled the tops of the trees and ice-covered streams glittered like precious gems.

James had never realised just how beautiful the area was until he’d moved here, and he had since come to fully appreciate why it was regarded as one of the ‘crown jewels’ of England. The stunning landscape contained a treasure trove of spectacular and unusual features – dramatic waterfalls, brooding lakes, deep ravines, awesome cave systems and towering white cliffs. Now a resident, he was determined to make the most of it and in the future planned to visit as many places as possible with his wife and their son or daughter.

He arrived at the station on the dot at nine, and found that most of his colleagues were already in the office. Several had got there just before him and were in the process of unwrapping themselves from winter coats and scarves.