I’d had no set route in mind when I left home, but it soon become apparent I was heading to the Botanic Garden, to the path down which Rose-Marie Bateman walked those fateful steps. The more I thought about it, the more I was convinced the other four killings, the circus diversion, everything, was all about her. Her murder wasn’t an isolated event, as had been suggested by others, a coincidence of timing. I didn’t believe in coincidence. It made sense that she was the ultimate victim. There was no struggle, she followed the path with someone she knew, and now – I was absolutely certain – someone she cared for. Christ, what a price she’d paid for love. The man she’d fallen for had planned her demise with meticulous care. He’d engineered the perfect smokescreen with the circus itinerary to deflect attention from his practice killings. What kind of sick individual would take the lives of strangers to ensure they had the fortitude or technique to kill their main target? And what chilled me even more was the knowledge that the first killing had taken place months before Rose-Marie was murdered, so he’d been planning her death well in advance. Yet her behaviour suggested her love for him was growing. What deception. Did he see it as sport? Was that what turned him on? Being the Ringmaster in his own personal circus, timing the acts, building up to the grand finale to see how far could he bait her, until the night of the eleventh of April, when down at the riverbank, secluded and romantic, he said, shut your eyes and hold out your hands, leading her to believe her love was giving her the ultimate gift.

That was the scene as it played out in my mind, and as I shook my head to be rid of the taint of it, I threw myself off balance, veering onto the road. He’d also played the police. We’d jumped beautifully on to his decoy. And although he could not possibly have orchestrated the vigilantes – well, at least I didn’t think he could have – his diversion could not have worked out better. I wondered if he would have been disappointed if the police hadn’t stumbled upon the circus. Would he have tipped us off, to make sure we knew how clever he was?