TEN
THE PARENTS
The sky, as seen from Holland’s office window, revealed a patina of blue and white, thin clouds resembling the wave crests that rolled in atop the waves that broke upon the seashore of Brighton’s famous beach. The detective inspector stared upwards, lost in thought as he awaited the arrival of the parents of the murdered girl. The television appeal had produced the desired result, in that within twenty minutes of the news broadcast being aired, a phone call to the police had given the police a name to apply to the second victim of the apparently frenzied murderer who now appeared to be stalking the dark night streets of the town.
Holland considered the possibility that he was getting too old for this sort of thing. Aged forty-eight and long divorced from Susan, who could
