‘Unfortunately. This one shocked the community and there was a great hue and cry. Levi Edward Jones, aged fourteen. Two weeks shy of his fifteenth birthday. He appears to have been clubbed from behind with some kind of bat or pole. He dropped and was then clubbed again while on the ground. Post-mortem shows the first hit would have been enough to mortally wound him. The killer took no chances and finished him off.’

‘Yeah, that’s right. I remember it now. Where did this happen?’

‘In Oamaru, the historic precinct, early morning, Sunday the sixth of April. Most of the light industrial places around there were closed, so the area would have been fairly quiet. He was found by a tourist. His parents owned a business in the area, which is why he was hanging around there on a Sunday morning. No sign of a struggle and no murder weapon.’

‘He wouldn’t have known what hit him.’

‘Not a hope in hell.’

‘Which leads us down the road to Dunedin.’

‘To Dunedin, and Rose-Marie Bateman, Friday the eleventh of April, and what was an obviously premeditated murder.’

Paul had placed the photographs in a row and was looking from one to the other.

‘What’s the first thing that strikes you about these deaths?’ he asked.

‘Apart from the circus being in town, they have absolutely nothing in common.’

‘Exactly. There’s a mix of male and female victims, different ages, different cause of death for each. Did the victims know each other at all?’

‘So far into investigations, it appears not. Smithy, actually, the one I introduced you to…’

‘The one who fancies you.’

‘He does not, and don’t be so gross.’

‘Whatever you choose to believe, Sam.’ I gave him a boot under the table. ‘Ow! Is that how you deal with everything challenging? Resorting to violence?’

‘Only towards those who are too thick to respond to reason.’

‘It’s just an observation, stating what I saw.’

A bit too late, I remembered my resolution not to bite. ‘Well, keep those astute observations to yourself. So as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, Smithy has been looking into possible connections between the victims and has come up blank. In fact, they seem pretty random.’

‘Purposefully random?’ Paul asked.

‘Yes, my thoughts exactly. They don’t draw attention to each other, so unless you were specifically looking for the circus connection, you’d never realise they could be related. And no one in their right mind would now turn around and say it was pure coincidence that these people died when the circus was in town.’

‘Some geeky statistician would probably try. Which brings us back to the circus. Five different murders, five different killers?’

‘Or five different murders, one killer trying to make it look like five different killers.’ A big hand grasped onto my knee, gave me a hell of a fright. ‘What?’

‘You’re jiggling.’