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Chapters (70)
  1. Cover
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  3. Map of Rutland
  4. Map of Oakham
  5. 1
  6. 2
  7. 3
  8. 4
  9. 5
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  13. 9
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  65. 61
  66. 62
  67. 63
  68. On Borrowed Time
  69. Acknowledgments
  70. Adam Croft

As she rounded the corner into the passageway, she noticed a couple standing a few feet short of the restaurant, locked in an embrace. It took a second or two before it registered, but once it had, she stepped back just as quickly as she’d gone forward. Edging herself slowly around the wall again to confirm her suspicions — and steadying her mobile phone to snap a couple of pictures — she tensed her jaw as she felt Operation Forelock move one step closer to closure. There was no mistaking it. The kissing couple were Alice Clifton and Patrick Walsh.

37

Back in the incident room, Caroline felt more energised and invigorated than she had in a long time. She now felt more certain than ever that Patrick Walsh was the key to unlocking what had happened to Roger Clifton. Until now, rumours of his affair with Roger’s wife had been just that — rumours. The Cliftons’ daughter had seemed a reliable enough witness, but now Caroline had incontrovertible proof that something was going on.

She now felt sure they had enough to arrest and begin questioning Patrick Walsh, but she didn’t want to dive in. As things stood, all their evidence was circumstantial. The moment Walsh was booked into the custody suite, the clock would start ticking and they’d be given twenty-four hours to either convince the Crown Prosecution Service to authorise a murder charge, or they’d have to release him. Caroline wanted to get all her ducks in a row before they did that. She wanted to make sure there was no way the slimy Patrick Walsh could wriggle out of it. Once he was in, she wanted to be sure he wasn’t getting out again. She needed to place him at the crime scene, or at the very least get hold of that CCTV evidence from the library which could go some way to proving Walsh sent Roger Clifton the emailed death threat.

Dexter knocked gently on her office door before letting himself in.

‘I didn’t want to say anything in front of the others, but I’ve been doing a bit more research and I think I might have something that could be useful,’ he said.

‘Go on.’

‘Well, I like to try and keep my ear to the ground. Not usually much call for it round here, but you never know, right? Anyway, I did a bit of digging and I found a Facebook group about local history stuff. One guy on there posted quite a lot of photos of the Hambletons and the area before Rutland Water was built. The way he was talking, he seemed quite nostalgic about it all. Seemed pretty negative about what had happened in the sixties and seventies. Anyway, I sent him a message saying I was new to the area, interested in history and all that, and—’

‘You sent him a message?’