She scrolled through her contacts and hit Mark Stone’s number. Jack Tyler’s words about Beth came back to her as clearly as if she’d heard them herself – she’d got what she deserved. Had Tyler known – or at least suspected – that Beth’s death wasn’t an accident? Did he try to blackmail Fuller? He was certainly desperate for money. But would he really have been dumb enough to attempt to extort cash from a killer? No, much more likely that he knew about the kickbacks Fuller was taking from the developer and tried to put the squeeze on him over that.

Stone’s phone was ringing now. His voice cut in on the other end of the line. At last. ‘You’re through to DCI Mark Stone’s voicemail. If you’d like to leave a name and number after the tone I’ll get back to you.’

Shit. She might not like the woman, but no one deserved to walk into the home of a potential murderer alone, and with no idea what they were up against. And besides, much though she didn’t like to admit it, she suspected that if she allowed anything to happen to Clare, David would never forgive her.

‘Mark, call me as soon as you get this! I think you may have a double murderer on your hands. Neil Fuller – a Gloucester address. And Clare Hills, lead archaeologist on the Bailsgrove dig, is on her way to his house right now.’

She slammed her mobile down on the desk and picked up her desk phone. ‘Get me Gloucester nick, now!’

Below her Clare could hear Neil Fuller’s footsteps echoing through the hallway. She could feel her phone vibrating in her pocket again. Could he hear it? She extracted it from the pocket of her moleskins and was about to switch it from vibrate to silent when she saw she had two voicemail messages and a couple of texts. It looked like one of each from David and Jo.

She put her ear to the door and listened. Not a sound. It didn’t seem like Neil was moving anywhere. What was he doing? She switched her attention back to her phone. She couldn’t risk listening to the voicemail messages; he might hear them. She hit the screen and brought up her texts. David’s first.

Fuller dangerous. I have proof. Stay with Jo. Two dead.

As she read the words of David’s message she could feel her whole body go cold. It was all she could do to hold onto the phone. She flipped through to Jo’s message.

Clare. CRABBY DEAD. NEIL KILLER. Get out! Go where people are. Phone me when safe. We’re coming. J x