ome minutes later, Rock pulled up before another lighthouse, this one with a rose tinted wash over its stucco casing.

Where South Light faced the Bristol channel, Old Light, as it was known, faced the Atlantic. Gently sloping grassland, dotted with prized Soay sheep, led down to formidable cliffs that overlooked the sea. A chill ocean wind leaned hard into the grass.

"Seems I'm getting the scenic tour," Nolan said, rubbing his hands together as they stepped out of the car. Down the granite gravel path strode a man dressed in a black turtleneck sweater and overalls. "That would be Jeremiah Ire, I take it."

"The same, Inspector," said the squat little man as he waved them into the shelter of his lonely outpost. The caretaker of Old Light was short but tightly compact like a block of hewn granite, topped with a long curly beard that one could readily imagine him the biblical prophet after whom he was named. "I imagine you've come about Mr. Longmire. The Lord has smitten Pharoah's foul toad. You'll forgive me if I do not weep."

"Constable Rock has told me about that row you had with the vicar. One of several such encounters, I'm informed." Nolan produced a document from his overcoat and held it before Ire. "He filed a complaint, you see. Said you threatened his life."

"The jackal had fangs, that's now no more." Ire lifted his shaggy eyebrows but said nothing further.

"This document, and your history of unfriendly incidents with the late vicar puts you in suspect row, Mr. Ire, unless you have a solid alibi for your whereabouts last night."

"The man was Abomination!" Ire blurted. He picked up a well-used Bible from the table and flipped it open. "O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved."

"My father was here last night," said a boy coming in from the living room. "Until it was dark, we sheared the sheep."

"And what about after that?" Constable Rock knelt to the boy's height.

"He was here!" the boy said fiercely and he moved under the protection of his father's arm. He was Jeremiah's diminutive double, minus the beard.

"Longmire was a breaker of the commandments," Ire said evenly. "The Lord has loosed his wrath upon him. Now leave us be!"