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DS to do that. It’s just as well I told Gordon Armstrong all about you.’
    â€˜And it’s just as well that I know that a humble DS is far beneath the vision of a CC. He’ll be much more worried about the super-sleuth in his cupboard.’ Hook gave his chief a wide, bland smile, knowing just how much he hated the tabloid expression.
    â€˜Have you anything of CID interest, Bert, or have you just come in here to annoy me?’
    Hook’s yeoman brow was suddenly furrowed. ‘Probably not. I expect you’ll tell me to go away and sort out my own small problems, whilst you get on with major frauds and serial killers.’
    Lambert sighed elaborately. ‘Let’s have it, Bert.’
    â€˜A neighbour of mine came in to see me on Saturday morning. The way neighbours do, when they’re worried. Eleanor says the woman’s not normally an alarmist, but I scarcely know her. She’s called Lisa Ramsbottom, but we can’t really hold that against her.’
    â€˜And what is it that’s worrying the non-alarmist Mrs Ramsbottom? I’m assuming that she’s a wife; that she volunteered herself for this surname.’
    â€˜She is indeed – so she may be a masochist. She says she’s received death threats. I gave her the usual guff about anonymous threats usually coming from mistaken jokers, who have cruel minds but not the courage to reveal who they are.’
    â€˜And she didn’t react well to that, or you wouldn’t be in my office telling me about her now.’
    â€˜She said she was still worried. There’s been more than one threat, apparently. She has a daughter and a husband. She’s worried about them as well as herself.’
    â€˜As we would be ourselves, in the same circumstances.’
    â€˜Yes. They have a weekend retreat in one of these leisure parks. It seems most of the threats have been delivered there.’
    â€˜Where is this?’
    â€˜Somewhere up near Leominster, I think. In the northernmost tip of our patch. On the very edge of civilization – very nearly in Wales.’
    â€˜I forgot to tell the new CC that you were a raving racist. But I do think you should investigate, Bert. Get to know the northernmost tip of our patch.’
    Lisa Ramsbottom had already invited him up there for a visit. There was a lake and a bowling green and a nine-hole golf course on the complex. He wasn’t going to tell Lambert that. Bert sighed deeply. ‘If I have to, I have to.’

THREE
    â€˜Y ou’re welcome to spend a day at Twin Lakes whenever you like. I told you that.’ Lisa Ramsbottom wished she’d had time to look in the mirror before she’d invited Bert Hook from next-door-but-one into her house. She’d whipped her pinafore off when the bell had rung, but she’d had time for nothing more. She was sure that she looked a mess.
    â€˜Thank you. I’d like to have a look round there when it’s quiet, rather than full of people, if that could be arranged.’
    â€˜If you can make next Friday, that would be perfect. Ellie’s off on a school trip with the netball team, so Jason and I are planning a long weekend in our place at Twin Lakes. They’re classed as temporary homes and you can’t live in them permanently, but they’re like moveable bungalows, really. You and Eleanor could stay the night, if you’d like to.’
    â€˜Oh, I don’t think we could manage that, because of the boys. But thanks for the thought.’ And thanks for the presence of Jason at this mobile home on Friday, Bert thought. Some women thought CID men were glamorous conquests, even when they were as stolid and uninteresting as he was. ‘Friday sounds perfect. I’ll clear it with my boss. And I can easily drive up and back in the day. It can’t be more than fifty miles from here.’
    â€˜It’s almost exactly that. Bring your golf clubs.’
    â€˜I’ll do that.