Description
When last seen alive, sixteen-year-old Deborah Harrison was on her way home from school. Her friend Megan thought she saw the shadowy figure of a man behind Deborah as they waved goodbye on the bridge, but the fog was so thick that evening she couldn't be sure. Not long after, Deborah's body was found in the local cemetery. The murder terrorised the wealthy enclave of St Mary's, Eastvale, and because Deborah was the daughter of a prominent industrialist, high-flying new Chief Constable Jeremiah “Jimmy” Riddle put pressure on Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks and his team to catch the killer without delay. And soon, partly thanks to the work of new recruit Detective Inspector Barry Stott, it looked as if they had done...
But Banks was not convinced. While the community breathed a collective sigh of relief and turned into a lynch-mob, Banks examined the loose ends: a vicar, accused of sexually harassing a refugee worker, who lied about his whereabouts at the time of the murder; his straying wife; a schoolteacher with a dark secret; the accused's vindictive ex-girlfriend; a teenage thug who had threatened Deborah and her family with violence. And then there were Deborah's own family secrets. With each new piece of information, a different pattern was formed, until Banks was forced to incur the wrath of Jimmy Riddle if he hoped to solve the case.