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Boyd parked the car outside the monstrous sliding gate at the old rectory. ‘I think we need to wait for reinforcements.’

‘They’ll be here soon,’ Lottie said, ‘but we don’t even know what we’re dealing with yet.’

The leafless trees were black with birds, sitting in groups on branches, cawing loudly. ‘A murder of crows,’ she said.

‘As long as there are no more murders, they can caw there all day long,’ Boyd said, handing her a Kevlar vest. He tightened the Velcro on his, while she did hers.

‘This is the address we have for our suspect, the gardener, and it’s the same address we got just now from the school for the child Maggie. She’s home with chickenpox. Shannon’s nephew, Davy, has it too. So it’s probable that Maggie got it from Shannon.’

‘Speculation. The incubation period is at least ten days.’

‘And we found a page from her school book where we suspect the taxi stopped the night Laura was killed.’ Lottie studied the forbidding gate and walls. ‘I hope I have the energy for this. I’m starving.’

‘Did you eat today?’

‘I meant to tip home for something… Oh shite. I never called Katie back.’ She’d just leaned into the car to get her phone when a massive sound cut through the air, flattening her to the seat. ‘What the…?’

‘That’s an explosion,’ Boyd said, crouched by the open door. ‘Stay down.’

‘We need to find out what’s going on. Shannon could be in there.’

Lottie righted herself, forgetting about calling Katie, and stood staring at the impenetrable gate. ‘Is the wall too high to climb over?’

‘Yes. We have to wait, Lottie.’

‘Fuck that.’ She checked her weapon was loaded and set off around the wall. ‘There must be a way in.’

‘This is madness.’ Yet he followed her.

The walls were crawling with ivy and creepers. Trees the entire way. When she came to what she thought was the rear of the property, the wall was even higher. Another explosion rang out, knocking them both off their feet. They fell to the ground, more from the noise rather than any flying debris. Lottie’s fall was cushioned by Boyd.

‘You okay?’ She couldn’t hear her own words or his reply. The blast had deafened her.

She got to her feet and turned to him. Blood gushed from the back of his head, darkening the grass. He’d landed on a jagged rock. ‘Boyd!’

‘Don’t shout. You’ll alert them.’

‘And a fucking big explosion won’t? You’re bleeding.’

‘It’s a scratch.’ He struggled to his knees before standing. They buckled and he leaned on her shoulder. ‘Let’s wait for the others in the car.’

‘You go back. I have to see what’s going on.’

‘Not on your own. I’m dizzy, Lottie. Seeing double.’

‘I’ll walk you. Come on.’

When she had him seated in the car, she looked up the lane. No sound of a siren yet. ‘Stay there. I won’t be long.’

‘Don’t be stupid.’

‘They’re in there destroying evidence. I can’t let that happen.’

She slammed the car door shut. Knowing Boyd was in no state to follow her, she took off at a run, back the way they’d walked.

She had to get inside.