'Why are you so keen on this guy Alexander?' the boss said, pointing to a picture clipped to the file on his desk.

'He was Tamsin Grainger's boyfriend. Well, that's what he believed, but according to her friends she had a different idea. From what we can gather, he thought it was an exclusive relationship, but she had only seen him twice and he had totally misinterpreted the situation. After he found her in a car with one of his lecturers not one of hers, as it happens he had a ma.s.sive row with her, overheard by some lads returning from the pub. She laughed in Alexander's face, told him to grow up and refused to see him again. According to the lads, he was about to punch her, but they intervened. She told her friends to steer clear of him, that he was a weirdo, but he wouldn't leave her alone kept following her around, apparently. According to one girl, she stuck a picture of him on the wall in the halls of residence and wrote k.n.o.b underneath it.'

'Yeah, I heard about that. The boyfriend's got a cast-iron alibi, though, so rule him out and don't waste any more time on him. It's more than likely another ex who hasn't got over her. Check them all out, and the lecturer too dirty b.u.g.g.e.r, s.c.r.e.w.i.n.g his students.' Victor grinned.

Tom looked at his boss. He knew he wanted a result they all did but a result had to be the right result, not just another tick in a box. Victor wanted them to find one of the ex-boyfriends who didn't have an alibi and then pin it on him, but Tom hadn't given up on Alexander, alibi or no alibi.

He had to admit, it was an impossible alibi to break. Alexander had been in the company of about thirty other students at the time of both murders. For the first he had been in North Wales, and for the second he had been in the Lake District with a university sports club. But Tom couldn't help feeling that he knew something, although he had no motive at all for Sonia Beecham's murder as far as they had been able to tell. She was such a quiet girl, and they couldn't find any evidence that her path had crossed with Alexander's. But if the profiler was right, she could have been a decoy and her murder without motive.

There was something not right about this lad Alexander. When Tom had interviewed him he had talked too much.

'I wasn't even here,' he kept repeating. 'I was away with my team. I won my race it's all recorded. You can check, you know.'

Tom had pointed out more than once that they already had.

'And Tamsin I know things ended badly. What did you think of her?' Tom had asked.

There was a pause, as if the lad was trying to work out what to say.

'She was a slapper,' Alexander said, his mouth forming a tight line.

33.

The cycle track was slushy and Lily loved riding through the puddles to make the biggest splash she could. Josh wasn't having a good day, though, and Maggie felt helpless. She was distracted with worries about Duncan and that awful picture that had been pushed through her door the day before, and she was only giving her children a small percentage of her attention. Try as she might, she couldn't force away the desperate fear that Duncan was in danger and needed her help, and yet she didn't even know where he was.

Lily's st.u.r.dy little legs were pedalling furiously, and Maggie increased her speed slightly to keep up with her daughter as they rounded the bends in the path that ran along the outer edge of the woodland. It was a couple of minutes before she realised that Josh was no longer right behind her.

'Lily, stop,' she shouted, applying her brakes. 'We've lost Josh.'

But Lily ignored her, or didn't hear her, her wispy blonde curls blowing in the wind as she pedalled. She often sang as she rode her bike, and she was probably lost in her own little world. Maggie looked over her shoulder again. What should she do?

Josh was probably a bit further back, round the corner, hidden by the trees. But they couldn't cycle off and leave him, and now Lily was getting away from her.

Maggie only had one choice. She raised herself off her saddle and pedalled hard until she caught up with and pa.s.sed Lily. She swivelled to face Lily coming towards her.

'Stop,' she said. Lily laughed, thinking it was a game. 'We've lost Josh.'

Lily put her feet on the ground and turned her upper body to look back along the track. There was no sign of Josh.

'Come on, tiddles. We need to go back and find him.'

Lily heaved her bike round and started back along the track. They rounded the bend. But the path ahead of them was clear. No Josh. Where was he?

'There, Mummy look,' Lily shouted, her finger pointing to the side of the track.

Lying on its side was Josh's bike, but there was no sign of her son. Maggie's heart began to hammer in her chest.

'Josh!' she shouted as loudly as she could. 'Josh where are you?' Lily joined in.

They were right at the edge of the woods, next to a small parking area, but it was empty or about to be. A white van was pulling out of the car park. Maggie stared open-mouthed at its retreating rear doors. 'Duncan?' she whispered, too quietly for Lily to hear her. She knew it was wishful thinking. The van wasn't as new as Duncan's. Or as clean. And there was no sign of Josh.

She jumped off her bike and threw it down on the side of the lane, screaming Josh's name as loudly as she could. She turned to Lily, who was staring at her, her mouth turning down at the corners. Oh G.o.d, I'm scaring Lily.

'It's okay, sweetheart. I'm sure he's hiding from us playing a game.' She plucked her daughter off her saddle with one hand and steered the bike off the track with the other, leaving it propped against a tree. With her daughter under one arm, she climbed the bank into the wood where it bordered the small car park.

'Josh,' she shouted, trying to keep the fear from her voice.

Up ahead she saw a flash of red. His cycle helmet.

Still carrying Lily she ran the fifty metres to where she could see the helmet. It was Josh, lying face down in the gra.s.s.

'Josh!'

She fell to her knees at his side, put Lily onto the damp gra.s.s and reached out to her son. With relief, she saw his back moving but in seconds she knew he was crying.

'Joshy, are you hurt, darling?' she asked.

He didn't lift his head, but a weak 'No' emerged from above his folded arms.

'What happened? What are you doing here?' She stroked his back gently.

Slowly he lifted his head. 'I thought it was Daddy,' was all he said, before the tears came again. Maggie stroked his back gently. Lily stroked his leg.

'I don't think it was, sweetheart. This van was a bit old for Daddy's.'

He raised himself up on his elbows.

'I know. But I saw it this morning too at the top of our road. I thought it might be Daddy then, but there were two men in it so I thought I was wrong. Then it drove off.'

Maggie put her arm around her son.

'Then when we set off on the bikes, it was there again but parked round the corner outside Oscar's, so I thought it must be some men working on Oscar's house or something.'

Oscar was Josh's friend and lived just round the corner.

'That sounds right, Josh. There are always workmen there.'

'I know, but when we turned to go onto the cycle path, I put my hand out like Daddy taught me, and I looked in my mirror to check if there was anything behind. That's when I saw the van. It was following us. When we got to the car park, it was already there, and the men were watching. One of them had a camera.'

Maggie's hand flew to her mouth to cover her gasp. Why were these men following them? Why did they have a camera? But she had to calm Josh down. She rolled from her knees and sat down next to her son.

'Okay, Joshy. Not to worry. I can understand why you thought it was Daddy's van.'

'I know it wasn't, because the number was different. I checked. Wrong place, wrong year, and Bad Smelly Man.'

Josh and his friend Oscar had become obsessed with car number plates since on a long car journey Oscar's dad had challenged him to spot cars with every initial letter of the alphabet. The boys had taken it a stage further, and now made the last three letters stand for something relating to the driver hence Bad Smelly Man BSM. Maggie knew that Josh would have at least that part of the number plate correct.

'And then,' Josh continued, 'one of the men got out of the car and waved to me. He shouted, "Hey Josh."'

'He knew your name?' Maggie tried to keep the panic from her voice.

'He asked if I was missing Daddy. And if I see him, I have to say hi from Sam.'

'Maybe Oscar's said something about your dad being away, sweetheart. That'll be it.'

'I haven't told Oscar. I haven't told anybody. I just want Daddy back.'

Maggie pulled him closer and grabbed Lily too. 'I know, love. We all do.'

'Then he said something weird. I think he said, "Tell Mummy she's next," but I might have got that wrong. Then they got back in the van and drove off. I ran after them. I wanted to ask if they knew where Daddy is, but I slipped and fell.' Josh started to sob again and Maggie squeezed him to her, whispering rea.s.surances to her small son.

The damp was seeping through Maggie's jeans where she was sitting on the wet gra.s.s, but she barely noticed. She was cold. So cold.

It was with a sense of relief that Maggie and the children turned the corner into the cul-de-sac to see a black cab drawing up at the end of their drive and Suzy getting out with a suitcase. She had told her not to come, but now Maggie desperately needed somebody to talk all this through with, and her sister could entertain the children while she spoke to the police. This had gone on for long enough.

'What a sorry-looking troupe you all are,' was her sister's greeting. 'Did all of you fall off your bikes? You're covered in mud, the lot of you.'

'Hi, Suzy,' Maggie said, her voice flat. 'It's good to see you, but you shouldn't have come.' Her sister looked at her silently for a beat, and her eyes narrowed as she registered the weariness in Maggie's voice.

'Nonsense. You needed me, and I needed an excuse to make Ian take some responsibility for his children for a change. So let's get my case in the door, and then you can go and get yourself showered, Maggie, while I bath these two.'

If things had been any less tense, Maggie would have giggled at Josh's expression.

'I can bath myself, Auntie Suzy,' he said, his eyebrows coming together in a look of worry. He had always been a private little boy, and had made it clear when he was about five that he wasn't sharing his bath with Lily because she was a girl. Maggie had no idea where he had got the notion from, but she hid her amus.e.m.e.nt and let him get on with it.

The shower was hot, and the pressure strong. For the second time today it was exactly what Maggie needed and she stood under the steaming jet for as long as she reasonably could, letting the water thaw her frozen body. But there was a level of ice in her that no water was going to melt.

The problem was now much more severe. Before, Duncan had been missing and she was genuinely frightened that he had done something stupid. Now there were men out there who were not only threatening her, but who knew her children by name.

Maggie knew she was going to have to talk to the police. Whatever Duncan had told her.

34.

'Suzy, it's good of you to come. But we're fine. Confused, unhappy, terrified but fine.'

'Of course you're not fine. Josh looks lost, poor little man, and you look as if you haven't slept for a week. Have you been to the police?' Suzy asked, keeping her voice low. Maggie had put some of Lily's favourite music on to try to lighten the atmosphere, so she didn't think the children could hear.

'No.'

'Jesus, Mags! Why not?' Suzy asked.

Maggie bit her bottom lip to stop it shaking. 'Because up to now I've been trying to make excuses, and now I've run out of them. If Duncan's in trouble, I want to help him, not turn him in. But now I don't think I've got any choice.'

'Thank G.o.d. Common sense has prevailed at last.'

Maggie felt something burst inside her. 'It all sounds so b.l.o.o.d.y obvious to somebody who isn't involved. But forget the logic for a moment. This is my husband we're talking about. I love him. I trust him. He's asked me not to go to the police, so I haven't. Ask yourself, in all honesty, what you would do. Go on, stop and think. Would you trust your husband, or would you run to the police because somebody might be threatening you?'

Suzy stared at Maggie for a moment or two then turned and went to the fridge.

'Why is there never any b.l.o.o.d.y wine in this house?' she muttered, knowing the answer. 'Shall I go and get some? Duncan can hardly complain if he comes home and finds us both p.i.s.sed.'

Maggie sighed and leaned back against the worktop. She was going to call the police but she would defy any happily married woman to believe this was a straightforward choice.

She could have done with a drink herself, but until this was over it didn't seem smart to let her guard down. There was one thing she wanted more than any alcohol.

'Actually, Suzy, would you mind looking after the kids for an hour or two. Then I promise I'll go and get you some wine. I'd like to disappear upstairs for a while and get my thoughts together because if I'm going to the police I have to make it good, and I have to try as hard as I can to keep Josh out of it. I don't want him questioned on top of everything else.'

Suzy walked across the kitchen and gave her sister a tight hug.

'Take as much time as you like. We'll be fine. And try and get a bit of sleep. Everything will seem clearer then.'

Maggie made her way slowly up the stairs, using the bannister for support and pulling herself up, step by weary step. She climbed onto the bed fully dressed, pulled the duvet over her legs and closed her eyes. But sleep wouldn't come. The dull ache in her chest grew and the first sob was loud loud enough to be heard downstairs. She quickly clicked the TV remote and turned up the volume she didn't care what was on because the storm of unhappiness that had been building inside her was about to erupt. Her last defences had gone, and she lay on her side, her arms wrapped tightly around a pillow and wept for everything she had lost. No matter what happened now, she didn't know how they would ever recover from this and be the family they had been.

Finally the tears subsided into gulps, and she lay exhausted on top of the bed, her body shuddering from time to time. Memories of the years with Duncan flooded her senses. With her eyes closed she could hear him, smell him, taste him. She wished with all her heart that she had insisted on more photographs, but there were none of the two of them together. She tried to conjure his face in her mind, but it wouldn't come.

It was the word Manchester that penetrated her brain, and Maggie rubbed her eyes to clear them. The television was tuned to a news channel, and on the screen there was a white tent under what appeared to be railway arches. Several people in white suits were milling about.

She listened to a report of a body being found that morning. This time the police knew the name of the victim. Maggie couldn't help feeling relieved when she saw a picture of the dead woman. For a moment she had feared it would match the one that had been pushed through her door the evening before. But this woman looked nothing like her, and anyway her body had only been found that morning.

As the newsreader's face faded, the camera homed in on a full-screen image of the victim and Maggie grabbed the remote, hitting the pause b.u.t.ton. She leapt off the bed and ran downstairs, startling her sister in the kitchen.

'What is it, Maggie? What's happened?'

Maggie ignored her and grabbed her handbag, groping around under the acc.u.mulated rubbish. Finally she walked over to the worktop and upended it. Out spilled coins, lipsticks, her purse, a pair of sungla.s.ses, car keys, comb, tissues and several a.s.sorted bits of paper. She rummaged through these and plucked out the folded sheet she was looking for.

She pushed past her sister, barely hearing her protest, and raced back to the bedroom, flattening the paper as she went.

She looked from the paper to the screen. She was right. The woman had a mole near the bottom left corner of her mouth. As did the woman in the photo that had been sent to Maggie. It was the same woman the garish make-up and black wig in the image sent to Maggie had obscured her natural features. But Maggie had received this photograph more than twelve hours before the body had been discovered. There was only one person who could have taken this photo the killer.

There was no longer a choice to be made. The children's safety was everything, and this couldn't be ignored.

She picked up the telephone.

In spite of knowing how devastating the outcome was going to be, it felt like a huge relief to be doing something. Maggie didn't want to talk to just any policeman, though. She knew that if she told them everything, the case would end up with the detective running the murder enquiry, Tom Douglas. But she hadn't made her mind up what she was going to say yet, so decided to talk to one of the desk sergeants at divisional headquarters. She had met Bill Shaw several times, and he seemed to like her. She would play it by ear and ask him to recommend somebody who would take the threat to her and the children seriously.

To her disappointment, he wasn't on duty.