Chapter 5

Ironically, I was sitting in a café in Wales eating a full English breakfast when the first reports of Blackman’s death hit the news. The police had forced entry when his friend had reported that he wasn’t opening his front door or answering his phone. The initial investigation revealed that he had committed suicide, or died during some kind of sexual activity and that no one else was being looked for in connection with his death. By lunchtime that day, speculation that Blackman had been Critchley’s lover and possibly his accomplice in the murders at the farmhouse was rife. Details of the DVD collection were being leaked by the police. The press ripped his initial accounts of the alleged assault by Critchley to shreds and by tea-time the following day, he was being painted to be as evil as the cannibal killer himself.

I felt satisfied with the way Blackman had been dispatched. I took out his mobile phone and texted a message to four names in his contacts list. It was time to ask Glynn Gaskin where Jennifer Booth was.