Yvonne smiled and shook her head. ‘You don’t understand the life of a small farmer. Warren wouldn’t have the time or the opportunity for an affair. Where would he meet women? He spends every hour working on the farm.’

‘Are you sure?’

‘Oh, I’ve seen him looking at the hikers sometimes. You know, the women who come past on the track up to the moor. Sometimes, when I didn’t know where he was, I thought he might have gone up there to look at them. In the middle of summer, you can see them all gathered round the stone circle, the Nine Virgins, all the young ones. But he would never do anything except look, I’m sure.’

She must have seen the sceptical look on Fry’s face. ‘Warren is a good man, really,’ she added. ‘Things just haven’t gone right for him.’

‘What about the boys, Mrs Leach?’ asked Cooper.

‘I wanted to bring them away with me, of course. But how could I?’ She gestured at her surroundings. ‘I had to come here, because I’ve got no family to go to. But I can get a job, can’t I? I’ve been looking. I can earn some money and I’ll get somewhere bigger that I can take the boys to.’

‘But in the meantime . . . are you quite sure they’re safe?’

She shook her head vehemently. ‘Oh, Warren won’t do anything to harm the boys. He thinks the world of them. They’re his whole life, but for the farm. He wouldn’t do a thing to harm them.’

‘It was Leach you had in mind, Ben?’ said Diane Fry as they drove back to Edendale.

‘How do you mean?’

‘You said your friend Fox was being made a scapegoat. If so, he has to be a scapegoat for somebody else. Who did you have in mind? It must have been Leach. But if it was, you seemed a bit soft on him earlier on.’

‘He won’t take pushing any further,’ said Cooper.

Fry slapped the steering wheel in irritation. Then her shoulders slumped, and she sighed. ‘I don’t understand you,’ she said.

‘Shall I call in?’ he said.

‘Go ahead.’

Cooper reported in to the incident room. His head lifted as he listened to the latest news. Fry turned impatiently.

‘What is it?’

‘Information from the RSPCA special investigations officer dealing with the Ringham Edge Farm enquiry.’

‘Yes? Have they got any firm evidence? Enough to act on?’

‘They’ve passed on the name of one of their informants. They don’t usually do that, because they have to protect their identities. But this one happens to be dead.’

‘Dead?’

‘Yes. One of their informants was Jenny Weston.’