‘I dunno,’ said John, shaking his head. ‘I don’t know if Fairfax would cover up something like that. He cared for Pike but not to that extent. He knew right and wrong and that’d be wrong. But there doesn’t seem any other way to account for the body going missing. Do you think he might have taken something from the church? Something he wanted to keep safe?’

I looked at the swirling pattern on the floor and listened to the rain on the glass. It felt as though I were listening to a hundred conversations. I knew it would only be a matter of time until she put it together. I saw it happening – saw her thoughts moving and drifting into a picture that she could clearly define.

‘His car,’ said Cordelia, at last, and it was all I could do not to close my eyes and hang my head. ‘Who has Fairfax’s car?’

‘It were towed,’ shrugged John. ‘After the accident. It’ll be at the garage, like as not. Be sold when the solicitor gets it all sorted out, though it were in a bad way as I hear it.’

‘It wasn’t taken for evidence?’ she asked, hopeful but appalled.

‘There’s no case, love. Chivers said so. It’s just junk now.’

‘So there may be something in the boot,’ she said, eagerly. ‘Something that could help. God, there could be a body …

John shook his head, like she was going too far. ‘You can’t sneeze in Gilsland without somebody telling you they’ve heard all about it. And I know what you’re thinking and I’m not having it.’

‘We could do it quietly …’ she began.

I shook my head. ‘This has gone far enough. We should just tell Chivers what we think. Or his boss. Tell the other office. Or go to Carlisle …’

Cordelia flushed red. ‘They threatened me,’ she said, like a hissing cat. ‘I can’t let anything trickle back to this Dingwall. Not until I know for certain what’s happened. Please, Flick, let’s just poke about …?’

‘Who the bloody hell’s Flick?’ asked John, indignant.

‘We haven’t read the papers I found,’ I protested, trying to stop her from persuading me to go with her. My heart felt like it was falling through my body. I wasn’t right for this. I should just step back, I knew it. And yet, a part of me didn’t want to end the game. And though it was superstitious nonsense, the bird had truly unsettled me. If Fairfax did die wrong, he deserved some help in putting it right.

‘What’s these papers then?’ asked John.

He looked a bit clueless, sitting there in his vest. He looked like he’d intruded into something that were nowt to do with him and I suddenly felt an urge to tell him to bugger off and mind his own business. Goodness, what was I becoming?