From the car, Maggie had watched the ambulance make three attempts to climb the hill to the kennels before sliding back down. The paramedics unloaded their kit and were about to ascend on foot when a patrol car arrived and two officers got out and had a confab with them. The snow was still falling heavily.

The four of them clambered the incline, and Maggie hoped Holly wasn’t coming the other way.

A couple of lights came on in the row of houses she was parked beside and lit up the scene. People were getting curious about the emergency vehicles. Come on, Holly. Soon they’d be coming out to investigate. Was Babysitter observing them? No sign of his Nissan pickup.

Maggie prayed Penny was obliviously sleeping at Sascha’s by now.

Had something happened at the mill? Should she sneak by while they were attending to Connor? Maggie was about to open her door when Holly slid down and into view.

She halted and looked frantically around. Maggie flashed her headlights once. She awkwardly sprinted to where she was parked and got into the passenger seat. Maggie started the engine.

‘Anything?’ She didn’t even wait for Holly to close the door before she pulled out.

‘Bodies.’

‘What?’ Maggie turned to Holly’s sickened features.

‘Five or six in there.’

‘Jesus.’

‘Wrapped in polythene.’

Maggie could see how shaken Holly was. ‘How did you get in?’

‘There was a bunch of keys in the kitchen.’

‘Son of a bitch.’ Maggie drove slowly out of Lime Falls. She was tempted to floor it, but didn’t want to call any unwanted attention to them. She sucked in air through her teeth as her bite pulsed under her jeans.

‘You OK?’

Maggie nodded.

‘You should get that dressed.’ It was a declaration not a suggestion. ‘How about a Demerol?’ Holly looked in the glove box for the pills.

‘Already taken one.’ Maggie massaged the area above the wound. ‘Connor said he didn’t have a key. Gave me some story about other guys showing up on a boat and dragging a girl in there.’

‘He knows much more than he’s told us.’ Holly closed the glove box but shook the pills.

Maggie picked up speed as they entered the woods again. ‘Well Connor’s no use to us now. He’s going to be talking to the cops for the foreseeable.’

‘Maybe we should call them and report what I found in there.’

‘Agreed. But not just yet. Let’s see if there’s anything online about Connor. What was the surname?’

‘Welch.’ Holly was already entering it into her phone.

‘Can’t be too many of them locally. We’ve really got to get gas.’

‘Found a news story.’ Holly hit the results.

‘Well?’

‘Arrested in 2011. Attacked an elderly woman in her front yard with a fence post. Sentenced to five years in Hubbard Penitentiary.’

‘Nice guy. Anything else?’

‘Looks like that took him off the scene for a while.’

‘What about his sister?’ Maggie waited while she searched.

‘Suzanne Welch. This looks like her.’ Holly tapped the screen. ‘“Doggie Fun Day Fund Raiser. Local kennel owner Suzanne Welch raised over seven hundred dollars for cerebral palsy charity Mindset and said she was happy to increase awareness of the condition and was planning to hold another similar event if her health allowed.’”

‘Polar opposite. When was that?’

‘Last July.’

Maggie watched Lime Falls receding in her mirror. ‘But are these people relevant to Babysitter, or was he just trying to direct us to the mill?’

‘So Connor said he had nothing to do with it?’

‘Claims he’s just a janitor, but if he has a key…’

‘Maybe he works for Babysitter, and he’s implicating us so we can never go to the police.’ Holly put on her belt.

Maggie hadn’t considered that. She wondered if Babysitter was building a story with their fingerprints all over it.

‘But what has any of this got to do with Tom Fresnade or Rich Temple?’

‘Perhaps nothing. Maybe our focus should be the locations he’s sent us to instead of people.’

‘But he’s told us to work out who he is.’ Holly rattled the bottle again and seemed to be thinking about taking another Demerol.

Her phone buzzed. Holly checked the display. ‘Phone call. Don’t recognise the number. Sascha?’ She answered nervously. ‘Hello?’

Maggie shot her eyes to the road and back to Holly’s wary expression.