“He’s right, ducks,” Granddad said. “The only way to solve this, in my thinking, is to find a local person who has shown himself in the past to be antisocial or warped or hostile. You know, the kind who writes letters to the local newspaper about his neighbor’s radio being too loud or the greengrocer raising the cost of potatoes. I think we’ll find each of the victims teed him off in a way that wouldn’t bother you or me.”

“Then could we go through the past issues of the newspaper and see if anything stands out?”

“That would take days,” Darcy said. “And I expect the police are already thinking along those lines.”

I sighed. “All right. Let’s go home. I give up. There’s no point in looking where the butcher’s van drove off the road because anyone could have hidden behind a big rock and jumped out to make him swerve. And I was the one who found the master of hounds’s horse and the only person I saw up there was Wild Sal and she’s behind bars.”

“Then let’s go back, have a good lunch and forget about it,” Darcy said. “No, don’t look at me like that. I’m not being callous, just realistic. And who knows, maybe we’ll come to the end of the day with no more deaths.”

“We could drive over to that farm and see where the farmer’s wife died,” I said as we reached the motor and Darcy opened the door for me.

“And question the cow?” Darcy said.

My grandfather laughed. For some reason I couldn’t find it funny. I climbed into the car with a haughty “I’m not amused” expression still on my face.

Darcy touched my hand. “Smile, Georgie. You can’t carry this on your shoulders. What could we hope to learn from looking at a cow barn? The only thing that would be interesting to see is whether the doctor agreed that death was caused by a single kick to the head.”

“I wonder whether he has a surgery in this town or was called in from Exeter.” I was already looking around.

“It wouldn’t be right to go and see the doctor without permission from the inspector,” Granddad said. “I’m sorry, love, but I agree with Darcy. There ain’t much more we can do on our own. Best go back to your posh house and enjoy yourselves.”