‘To his house, of course,’ Judith said, throwing on her cape and swishing out of the door. ‘We have to find out who that is!’

Chapter 13

Before Becks had even finished her phone call to the police, Judith had released her punt and once again thrust her way upstream to Stefan’s house. Leaving the boat embedded in the reeds, she stepped up onto the grass. If she’d stopped to consider what she was doing for even one second, she’d have realised she was potentially putting herself in grave danger, but all she could think was that she’d allowed the killer to get away once, and she wasn’t going to let it happen again.

As she strode through the darkness towards the old watermill, she kept to the grass verge so her feet didn’t crunch on the gravel, and again she saw the torchlight swing in a downstairs room.

Approaching the back entrance, Judith barely paused as she saw that the lock had been jemmied off, the doorframe a mess of ripped wood, the door ajar. And nor did she break step as she pushed through into a stone-flagged hallway and turned in the direction of the room where she’d seen the torchlight.

‘Hey!’ she called out as soon as she entered.

She could just make out a figure at the other end of the dark room.

‘I said “Hey”! Who goes there?’

The person was dressed in black, and their head was ominously covered in a black balaclava. Whoever it was turned on their torch again and swung the beam so it dazzled her eyes.

‘Turn that thing off!’ Judith said.

The intruder threw their torch at her, the beam of light spinning wildly as the heavy object flew straight for her head. Judith managed to drop to the floor before she was hit, a scream of pain shooting up her wrist as she broke her fall with her hands. Once the torch had thudded to the floor, she lumbered back to her feet, but it was too late. The dark figure rushed through the same door Judith had come in by.

‘Stop right there!’ she called out as she grabbed hold of her right wrist in agony.

But the person had gone, and Judith was awash with pain and adrenalin that made her feel sick. She leant against the wall to give herself a few moments to recover. Who had she just interrupted? Was it Elliot Howard? It was possible, but Judith knew she hadn’t taken in any meaningful details of the intruder.