CHAPTER 10
CROYDON, LONDON
The standout name on Vance’s list of crossbow purchasers was William Brayford. Not that the name meant anything to the detective; indeed, he had never come across it. What attracted his jaundiced eye was Brayford’s address. He lived in a street in Croydon, and that borough had been last year’s most dangerous in the entire city, with 1,617 violent crimes recorded. Many of those offences were stabbings, so it did not seem impossible to Vance that a crossbow killer might have his warped origins within that community. His driver for the day was a pleasant uniformed constable called Gareth Williams, who denied having Welsh roots, “My family is from Waltham Forest, sir. It has been for generations. But, if I traced our history, I dare say that I’d turn up Welsh ances
