‘No, I want to ask you about your employees. Can you remember the names of anyone who worked for you at the farm during that time? During the last four years?’

Sutton hummed quietly. It occurred to Cooper that he might not actually know what year it was now, so the question might be meaningless.

‘I brought the farm records book,’ he said. ‘It might bring back memories. See if you can think of a few names to go with these initials, look.’

Sutton glanced at the book for a moment, and sighed. ‘The service round here is terrible. I’d kill for a cup of tea.’

As he signed himself out at the door a few minutes later, Elaine smiled at him.

‘Was Raymond a bit better?’

‘Yes, a bit. I was trying to jog his memory.’

‘It works sometimes. He’s a bit unpredictable. It depends how tired he is.’

Cooper looked at the collection of old ladies on their chairs in front of the TV set.

‘Some of the residents will be going home to their families for Christmas, I suppose?’ he asked her.

‘Yes, some. But not all.’

‘Are a few of them too ill to leave?’

‘Yes, and then there are those who don’t have families. Well, not families who want to see them at Christmas, anyway.’

‘I see.’

Cooper stood outside for a few minutes, looking at the windows of The Oaks. He had no idea when family and community had started to fall apart, but he had a feeling his grandparents wouldn’t have recognized society the way it was now. In their time, old folk had been looked after, instead of being allowed to spend their final years abandoned and alone. He had known, deep down, that the disintegration of family life was happening everywhere – not just in the big cities, but right here in the villages that had always relied so much on a sense of community.

Of course, he saw the results every day among the people he had to deal with in his job. Children running out of control on the streets, young people walking away from home to lives full of drugs and destitution. Single mothers everywhere, trying to raise families on their own. Mentally disturbed individuals who either lived outside society, or ended up in prison. Old people dying, neglected, their deaths unnoticed for months by their family or neighbours, or even by the postman. It would never have happened at one time, he was sure.

Of course, people had died for quite different reasons back then.