Perez followed him back to the surgery and stood in the car park until Tom had driven away. He had a sudden sense of being watched and shifted his gaze to the street. Again the strange man was standing at some distance, close to the entrance of the school, and staring at him. It was as if he was desperate to speak to Perez but couldn’t quite find the nerve to approach him.

‘Come here,’ Perez shouted. ‘I might be able to help you.’ But the words just seemed to scare the man and he turned and ran away.

13

The Stranger

Perez chased the man who’d been following him. He was certain that this stranger held the answer to the mystery of Anna Blackwell’s death. The man took a road that Perez hadn’t explored yet. It led quickly out of the village and rose into dense woodland. Perez thought these must be the woods he’d seen at the back of Sarah and Tom’s house. They were conifer trees, planted very close together, and they blocked out most of the light. It was as if night had come early.

The man left the road and took a path through the woods. Perez was fit, but the stranger seemed to run without effort. He knew just where he was going and Perez soon felt lost. He was out of his comfort zone. He was used to Shetland with its open hills and big skies. There were few trees in the islands and he’d never been in a forest as dense and dark as this before. All he could see was a glimpse of a shadow heading into the undergrowth. Then even that was gone and Perez knew that the man had escaped him.

Despite the cold, Perez was sweating after his run. He stood still for a moment and tried to figure out the way back to the road. The little light that was left was fading, and he knew he’d have no chance of finding his way back to the village in the dark. He stumbled through the trees, hoping to see lights from houses or cars.

And all the time his mind was working. He’d figured out who he’d been following. A glimpse of the stranger’s face had shown a family likeness to a person Perez had come to know well. The man must be Sandy Kerr, Gail’s brother. He’d been one of the people in the wedding photo at the farmhouse. This case was all about family secrets, Perez thought. That was why it had been so hard to find out what had been going on, to find out what had led to Anna’s murder.

Perez lost his footing and slid down a steep bank, landing on a hard surface that scraped his hands. Tarmac. At last, and quite by chance, he’d found the road.

Jimmy started breathing more easily, and the panic he’d felt when he was surrounded by trees slowly left him. He just had to follow the road back to Stonebridge and his hotel. He knew that Sandy Kerr lived with his sister. It shouldn’t be hard to find him and see what he had to say. Perez had the feeling that Sandy wanted to explain what had happened to Anna. He was ready to talk.