Sally took the book and tucked it into her jacket pocket. “That’s excellent. We’ll work our way through it and see what we find. Thanks for all your help. My condolences once again.”

“Glad to be of help. Please catch the culprit soon.”

“We’ll do our very best, Liz.”

Jack followed Sally and Liz back through the house to the back door, which Liz locked after they left.

“I hate this part,” Jack complained the second they were seated and buckled up in the car.

“What part? Telling loved ones their relatives are dead?” The statement sounded blunter than Sally had intended it to come out.

“Yep.”

“It’s a good job the task always lands in my lap then, isn’t it? I can’t say I’m doing a bloody happy dance at the moment, either, Jack. Now we have to go and tell a grieving widow who is under the doctor that her daughter has been murdered. Shit happens, eh? Feel free to take over from me at any time during the next conversation, all right?”

“Your sarcasm can be so bloody caustic at times, boss. Has anyone ever told you that?”

Actually they had. But if her partner proceeded to aggravate her with daft comments, then surely she had every reason to be sardonic with her response.

They arrived at Mrs. Webster’s semi-detached house on the edge of the countryside, and after Sally introduced herself and her partner, a puzzled-looking Mrs. Webster welcomed them into her home.

“What can I do for you, Inspector?”

“I’m sorry, Mrs. Webster. I have some bad news regarding your daughter.”

“My daughter? Has she done something illegal?” She clutched a hand to her chest, and her face rapidly drained of colour.

Sally inhaled a large breath. “No. It’s nothing like that… there’s no easy way to say this but tell you outright. Your daughter’s body was found early this morning.”

“Her… body?” The woman let out an agonising cry and collapsed on the floor.

Jack sprang into action, dug out his mobile, and called for an ambulance.

Sally dropped to the floor alongside Mrs. Webster. She felt the woman’s neck for a pulse but couldn’t find one. Then with her limited first-aid knowledge, she proceeded to carry out CPR. Sally knew her efforts were a waste of time as she saw the woman’s lips turn blue, but still, she pumped away until help showed up. A full ten minutes passed before the paramedics arrived.

Sally’s hands shook as she relayed what had happened. “I tried my best to save her.”

The first paramedic knelt beside the woman and tested her neck for a pulse. He looked up at his colleague. “She’s gone.”

Sally covered her face with her hands and Jack threw a comforting arm around her shoulder. “You did your best, Sally.”

She shrugged his arm off. “But it wasn’t good enough, was it?”

“Did she have any health problems, do you know?” the paramedic kneeling next to Mrs. Webster’s body asked.

“Yes, she was under the doctor. I guess the news I delivered was just too much for her to take.”

“What news?” the other paramedic asked.

“I just told her that her daughter’s body was found this morning.”

“Christ!” the kneeling paramedic said. “Poor woman. The shock must have killed her.”

Sally and Jack left the house, and Jack lit up a cigarette then forced Sally to take a puff.

She immediately started choking. “What are you trying to do? Kill me?” she spat at him after recapturing her breath and filling her lungs with some clean air.

He cringed. “Believe it or not, I was trying to help. Guess I forgot you don’t smoke.”

“Thanks. If you have any further bright ideas like that, kindly keep them to yourself. My throat feels like I’ve swallowed a cheese grater.”

“Okay, no need to go on about it, boss. What do we do now?”

“You mean do we move on from here and see if we can kill another of Maddie’s relatives with the news of both deaths?”

“I wouldn’t quite put it like that myself, but we’re going to have to break the news of Maddie’s and her mother’s deaths to another member of the family soon, aren’t we? We can’t just walk away as if nothing has happened.”

Sally pushed herself off the wall she was leaning against and stood within a few inches of her partner. If he’d been a foot shorter, they would have been standing nose to nose. “Thanks, partner. I’m well aware of that. I’m going to contact the station, see if we can find another relative living in the area. In the meantime, we should set off and see if we can pick up any clues at the pub where Maddie worked. The Wellington Arms, wasn’t it?”

Glancing down at her, he nodded. “Yep. What about the boyfriend?”

“I’ll get the guys back at the station looking into his background while we’re at the Wellie.”

They made their way back to the car. Sally shuddered against a sudden breeze that arose just before they settled into the car. She rang the station, issued orders on what she expected from the team to DC Jordan Reid, and told him where they were en route to next. She hung up and stared ahead of her for a second or two.

Jack nudged her arm with his elbow. “Time’s getting on, boss. Do you want me to drive?”

She shook her head, trying to dislodge the image of Maddie’s dead mother lying in her lap. She fired up the car and slapped the steering wheel with her hand. “I’m fine, or I will be. Professional head on, and it’s off we go.”

The Wellington Arms public bar was relatively quiet when Sally and Jack walked in and announced they were there to speak to the manager. The pretty young barmaid went in search of her boss and returned with a man in his early fifties.

Sally and Jack produced their IDs for the confused man.

“Is there somewhere private we can chat, Mr. Locke?” Sally asked.

“My office. Come through.” He held open the bar for them and walked through to the back area of the building, away from the prying eyes and straining ears of the customers. “What’s this about, Inspector?”

“We’re here to inform you that one of your members of staff lost her life last night.”

“Lost her life? In an accident? Who?”

“No, it was no accident, Mr. Locke. Maddie Webster was found murdered in the early hours of this morning.”

He flung himself back in his chair. “What?”

“Not very pleasant. I’d rather not go into details about the crime. What I would like to know is if Maddie had any ‘admirers’ at the pub?”

“Admirers as in weird folk who would set out to end the poor girl’s life?” he asked coldly.

“If you want to put it that way, yes,” Sally agreed.

“No, not that I can think of. Everyone loved Maddie. She was my longest-serving barmaid.” He ran a hand through his greying hair. “Shit! Sorry, I just can’t believe someone would set out to intentionally kill that poor girl.”

“Can you tell me if she was friendlier than usual towards one of the customers last night, perhaps?”

He inhaled and exhaled a large breath. “It was my night off, the wife’s birthday actually. Damn, Maddie filled in for me. She gave up her one night off this week so I could share it with my wife, and now she’s dead. There’s just no rhyme or reason for that, is there?”

“No, there isn’t. We called at her address earlier and spoke to her neighbour, Liz, who mentioned that Maddie had recently split up from her fiancé. Did you know this?”

“Yes, everyone in the pub knew that. She was strong, though, always put her smile on at work so nobody would have been aware just how broken-hearted she was about ditching that scumbag. Some men just don’t know when they’re on to a good thing with a girl. I offered to go round there and see him, give him a piece of my mind, but Maddie insisted she was okay about the break-up. She wasn’t aware that I used to listen to her in the toilet, crying her eyes out.”

Sally frowned, thinking the man was some kind of voyeur.

He corrected himself, “Nothing sinister in it, Inspector. The ladies’ loo is right next door, and the walls to this office are paper thin so, unfortunately, I tend to hear everything that goes on in there. I assure you, at times, I wish that really wasn’t the case.”