The constable did so. There was a faint glow as it shone on a small object inside. What was it?

DS Malik reached in and carefully pulled out a short silver chain.

On the end of it was a small bronze medallion with flowery swirls carved into the edges. It looked identical to the medallion they’d found on Stefan’s body. It even had a word carved across the front. But this time the word wasn’t ‘Faith’, it was ‘Hope’.

Understanding came to DS Malik in an ice-cold rush.

Judith Potts was right.

Stefan had been murdered. With a bullet to the centre of the forehead. The killer had then struck again by murdering Iqbal in exactly the same way. And then he’d left a bronze medallion behind at the second scene just as he’d done at the first.

But this wasn’t the end of it, DS Malik knew. Because the old saying was ‘Faith, Hope and Charity’, wasn’t it? With the first two killings they’d had ‘Faith’ and ‘Hope’, but they hadn’t had ‘Charity’ yet, had they?

The message from the killer couldn’t have been any clearer.

This wasn’t going to be the end of it.

There was going to be a third murder.

Chapter 10

Judith was fizzing with excitement when she got home. Who was this second person who’d been shot in Marlow? She decided she’d only have a short wait until the local television bulletin came on after the six o’clock news. It was bound to be featured. But until then, what should she do?

Judith looked at all of the old newspapers, periodicals and magazines that lay littered around her drawing room. The mess was getting untenable, she knew. And as she looked at the piles of paper, her fingers went to the chain she wore around her neck day and night. As she pulled out the key that was on the end, her eyes slipped to the door to the side of her drinks table. She couldn’t stop herself from looking. And thinking.

After a long moment, she shoved the key back down the neckline of her blouse. She had to keep herself busy, that was the answer. It was always the answer. So she went over to her dining table where she had an unfinished jigsaw puzzle. Yes, that would suit her much better, she decided. It was safe. Achievable. Just diverting enough but no more.

The puzzle she’d been working on depicted a West Highland terrier in a tartan waistcoat standing in front of Edinburgh Castle, not that Judith liked West Highland terriers, and she was very sure she didn’t like West Highland terriers in tartan waistcoats. But she bought all of her jigsaw puzzles from the charity shops in Marlow and took them back once she’d completed them, so she’d just been grateful to find a puzzle she’d not done before.