Manolis thought that sounded like a superstition and inwardly shook his head. But he then recalled the strange location of the wounds on the back of Molly’s head, and the surprising lack on her face. Kerr had explained them by saying she would’ve turned her own head in that situation. Did that make sense? Was Molly guilty of something? Guilty of what? Or simply terrified?

‘One time I see, the pit is too shallow. The woman has to wait for death listening to the sound of working shovels digging deeper pit.’

When the ritual is over, fists shoot into the air in triumph and celebration. Villagers boast of what they’ve done and receive blessings for their magnificent act.

‘People say they do their duty in the name of Allah,’ said Ahmed. ‘They are not the ones throwing the stones. Allah throws them. He guides their arms.’

Afterwards, the body is disinterred and taken away. The hole is filled in, the area flattened and raked clean to remove any trace of blood. Fresh soil is scattered.

Raked clean to remove any trace of blood…? Manolis wondered whether that might explain the noticeably small bloodstain at the scene.

Ahmed said that adulterers who confess are allowed to go free if they can escape the pit during their execution, and Manolis realised this was a quirk of the ritual that put women at a distinct disadvantage. Pits were dug deeper for women than men, up to their chest, not waist. The death game was loaded.

Manolis again considered the evidence. Molly was tied to a tree, not buried in a pit. She’d not been wrapped in cloth, and her head was left exposed. He imagined the horror of seeing stones approaching, even in darkened light. The uncertainty, their indistinct outlines probably making it worse. This could indeed explain the trauma to the back of her head if she’d been trying to dodge their trajectory. But there were similarities in ritual too. It had taken place in the countryside, and it could very well have been at dawn.

He recalled a unique feature about a stoning: that it was perhaps the only form of execution in which no single person delivered a fatal blow, but where a community became de facto executioner. Had he been wrong to suspect a single killer operating in isolation? Was Cobb itself the culprit?

‘You certainly know a lot about stonings,’ Manolis said.

Ahmed smiled gently, almost modestly. ‘Most of us from these countries do,’ he said. ‘Stonings, whippings, burnings, beheadings, all happen, all the time. We grow up with them all around us, even as children, it is part of everyday life. We fear them so we know right from wrong. But this is my yesterday. And today, I have nothing to hide.’

‘So,’ Manolis said, ‘then tell me – where were you last Friday night?’