“I only told the police that I’d seen you up near where the master of hounds disappeared, that’s all,” I said. “I was asked if I’d seen anybody and I could hardly lie. Besides, you saved me from falling into the bog. I told them that too.”

She looked at me strangely. “He went into the bog, and good riddance too,” she said. “Hunting poor defenseless foxes.”

“Did you string the wire that tripped up his horse?”

“Me? Why would I want to harm a horse? I love all creatures, except humans, that is.”

“But you saw him fall off his horse?”

“No, but I saw someone putting him in the bog.”

“Who was it?”

“Couldn’t tell you that. Big bloke, all wrapped up, wearing some kind of hood. And I reckon the other one was already dead, ’cos he just lay there and let the bog suck him up.”

“Why didn’t you get help?”

“Too late by then. Once the bog gets you, you goes down fast, and like I said, I reckon he was already dead.”

“Why didn’t you tell this to the police?”

“I did, but they weren’t interested. I couldn’t describe the bloke, see, couldn’t tell if he was young or old or anything. Just that he were a big, strapping chap.”

“And you saw that van go off the road, too?”

“No, I heard the noise and I got there too late. It was already smashed to bits down in the stream.”

“So you didn’t see the same man there?”

“Didn’t see nobody,” she said.

I phrased my next question carefully in my head. “Sal, do you know anyone in these parts, anyone at all, who would do terrible things like this?” I gave her an appealing look. “He has to be stopped before he kills more people.”

“I don’t have much dealings with people. Keep myself to myself, that’s what I do,” she said. “They don’t trust me and I don’t trust them. But there’s plenty of folk don’t deserve to live.”

“But you might be in danger too. You might be next.”

“Not me,” she said. “No one around here would ever dare touch me. They’re afraid of the Lovey Curse.”

“I’m going with the inspector today,” I said. “With any luck we’ll know who is doing this by tonight.”

I saw her look at me strangely and I found myself wondering if she was the killer after all. Hadn’t she just said that there were plenty of people who didn’t deserve to live? But how had she managed to cover so much ground? How could she possibly have known about the butcher driving on the road from Newton Abbott, or got to a farm on the other side of Bovey Tracey? And how would she be strong enough to drag a body into the bog?