‘No. The bag – actually it was a bin liner, as you know – was supposed to have been found more quickly. We expected it to be found. You can’t put plastic in the rendering machine.’

He’d said ‘we’. ‘Go on,’ I said.

‘It goes in with other farm waste in a huge lorry. You’d have no chance of finding the stomachs from these particular pigs.’

And that would have been the case had Gary not changed the company who took it away.

‘You and Kirsty thought it all through.’

‘Just me. Not Kirsty.’

‘You said “we”, Tony. We know she was involved. So you did all this and then what, walked home afterwards?’

‘Yes. I smashed the CCTV and took the hard drive home with me. That’s in the slurry pit at my farm.’

‘And what about Gary?’ I said.

‘Yes, I killed him too. He was always a silly boy. He caught sight of me leaving the abattoir that night, as he arrived. Tried to blackmail me.’

‘How did you kill him?’

‘I … I’m quite tired. Can we take a break?’

‘Not yet. We know Kirsty killed him, Tony. She wore Daniel’s overalls.’

Tony shook his head but there was no conviction in it.

‘She killed Daniel too,’ I said. ‘She supplied him with drugs, didn’t she?’

‘If she did, it was only for his pain. The doctors wouldn’t give him enough.’

‘We know she’s a psychopath, Tony.’

He slammed his hand on the table, a shock move that made both me and the solicitor jump. ‘Don’t say that word! She’s not one of those!’

I slowed my breathing again. ‘But you sent Bex to her aunt to keep her away from Kirsty?’

‘I never believed Kirsty hurt Tim. That all came from Nina.’

‘So Nina thought Kirsty let Tim onto the lane deliberately, but you didn’t?’

‘Of course not. There was paint on the key from Bex’s hands. But nobody blamed her – she was far too young. She should have been watched, but Nina was struggling. Not getting enough sleep. She was imagining things. Kirsty isn’t bad, just different. My father and my grandmother were like her.’

‘But you sent Bex to your sister Janet, and you locked your wife up.’

‘I didn’t mean it to be permanent. I did it to stop her leaving with Bex. But then I realised she was pregnant. She would have taken all my babies to the Ukraine. I couldn’t let that happen. I’d already lost my darling Tim. I couldn’t bear to lose any more children. I’m not a bad person. Once I knew Nina was staying there, I made it nice. It’s much better equipped than my own house. And I never …’ He looked down and fiddled with a scratch on the table. ‘I never forced myself on her. She didn’t want … There were no more children.’