“You’re right, my lady.” He wagged a finger in my direction. “But there was a crime, wasn’t there? The jewelry shop in Newton Abbott was broken into. I don’t suppose that had anything to do with the deaths. In fact, I’d have said that someone needed extra money for Christmas except that it was clearly a professional job—safe cracked with no problem and only the best stuff taken—some really expensive gold rings.”

“So have you given up on the idea that the convicts were to blame?” Granddad asked.

“I think I have to, sir. The deaths have been so spread out now that I can’t believe escaped convicts could have covered so much ground on foot without being seen. And then there’s the question why. If you’d just escaped from Dartmoor Prison your one thought would be to get as far away as possible and then lie low, wouldn’t it?”

“You said they’d recaptured one of the convicts, didn’t you?” I asked.

“They have, my lady, and they’re holding him in a cell up in Birmingham until they can bring him back here.”

“Did he have anything to say about his fellow escapees?” I went on.

“He thought the other two were planning to head straight for London. Leastways, that’s what he said. If he knows more, he’s not spilling the beans. They don’t usually rat on each other.”

“So this woman who was kicked in the head—have you seen her yet?”

“I haven’t. They rushed her to the hospital because she was still breathing, but unfortunately she died on the way there, and nobody got a chance to see how she was lying or to examine the shed as a possible crime scene. By now those cows have probably walked all over the spot where she was found.”

“It seems to me this all comes down to why,” Granddad said. “Why these particular people.”

“I agree with you, sir,” the inspector said. “And believe me, I’ve asked myself that question over and over. But they’ve nothing in common. They’d certainly not have mixed socially, would they? I mean a master of hounds and a switchboard operator and a butcher. I’ll wager they didn’t even know each other.”

“I presume you’ve been through your case files to see if you’ve any antisocial or violent blokes in the area?” Granddad asked.

“I’ve done that. We’ve our share of lads who are soft in the head, like that poor chap you’ve got in the village here, but nobody who’s shown any inclination to kill people.”

“It could be someone who has come down from London for the Christmas holidays, I suppose,” Mummy said.