Heather, who had been listening in fascination, cracked out laughing. "It's a bogeyman. Bloody hell, I wouldn't have thought anyone would have believed anything like that in this day and age."

"But something must have happened,"Alison insisted. "Something must have happened to make them think it was the Mantequero. And it must have had something to do with Miss Blacker."

She fell silent, thinking of the house at the top of the hill, decorated with flowers, like the scene of a ...