‘I’ve got our lawyer on the phone, and he says we don’t have to answer any questions. Not unless he’s present. And the police aren’t allowed on our property without a warrant.’

‘I’m just answering the detective sergeant’s questions.’

‘Well don’t,’ Daisy said firmly, before turning to face Tanika. ‘Now, if you’re not going to charge my husband with anything, and you don’t have a warrant, then you’ll have to leave at once.’

Tanika knew that Daisy was right. Without the owner’s permission, she wasn’t allowed to stay on the property.

She looked at Daisy, and could see a determination to her that brooked no disagreement.

Tanika smiled tightly, made her excuses and left, but as she returned to the house, she paused briefly by the bifolds and glanced back at Elliot and his wife. It looked very much as though Daisy was reading the riot act to her husband.

Now what was that about?

Chapter 30

The following day, a national newspaper splashed on its front page that a triple killer was on the loose in Marlow. By the evening, the story was being featured prominently on the TV news, and from that moment on, it felt as though the international media had taken over the town. There were news satellite vans parked outside the Assembly Rooms, and a seemingly endless supply of reporters from all over the world vox-popping residents, asking them how they coped with going about their day while a serial killer was at large.

It was hugely unsettling for everyone, and local community leaders like the mayor and the Reverend Colin Starling were constantly being wheeled out to remind their residents and the wider world that Marlow was in fact a peaceful place where residents generally lived side by side in harmony.

As for Judith, she vanished for the next couple of days, which allowed Becks and Suzie to catch up with their lives. But then, on the Monday morning, both women got a call from her. They were to drop everything and go to her house at once. She’d made a breakthrough.

‘I don’t believe it,’ Suzie said as she and Becks stood in wonder in Judith’s sitting room.

In front of them, on the green baize table, were the shredded pieces of paper Suzie had stolen from Andy Bishop’s office, but they’d been separated and straightened as best as Judith could into strips a couple of millimetres wide, and all aligned so they recreated the original sheet of A4 paper.

‘You put it back together?’ Becks said, as amazed as Suzie.

‘I told you I’d do it,’ Judith said.

‘But there must be hundreds of pieces here!’ Suzie said.