Mrs Hucknell said, ‘We knew Dennis a little bit, of course. He was the scout leader for Jack’s group. He seemed like a nice man, from the small amount of contact we had with him.’

‘I hate to ask, but would you mind telling us a bit about your son’s death?’ Palmer had already seen the death certificate, so knew more than he was letting on, but wanted to hear what happened from their point of view.

‘He’d been a happy boy,’ Mr Hucknell said clenching his hands together. ‘Jack was smart. He did well in school and he was popular.’

His wife reached out and rested her hand on his knee. The twenty years that had passed only helped to lessen the pain. They would never fully recover from losing their child.

‘It all changed when he started secondary school,’ Mrs Hucknell took over explaining. ‘He suddenly became introverted. His schoolwork slipped, and he stopped being interested in things. He’d always loved his sport, was always out kicking a ball, but he even lost interest in that. We took him to the doctor. They said he was depressed but they didn’t want to medicate him because of his age. We all hoped it was just a phase and that it would pass. But he started to have trouble sleeping and things got worse.’ The pain in her voice was evident and Palmer couldn’t help thinking about his own boy. ‘He’d loved scouts and even lost his enthusiasm for that. We thought maybe it was hormones, a teenage thing.

‘At the time his father worked for a bank and I worked as a doctor’s receptionist. That day he went off to school as usual and the two of us went to work. The school was only a ten-minute walk from our house so we’d given Jack a key, so he could let himself into the house after school. He’d been doing it for months.’ Her voice wavered. ‘School finished at three twenty and I came back from work at five thirty.’ Mrs Hucknell’s bottom lip began to quiver and the officers could see she was doing her best to control it, which only made it harder to watch.

‘His brother, Matthew, found him,’ Mr Hucknell cut in, saving his wife the agony. ‘Jack hung himself. Nina came home after work and found Matthew and Jack together. Matthew had come home later than Jack. He’d been playing tennis after school. He found Jack. He cut him down and sat on the floor next to his body until Nina came home and discovered them together.’

‘I see,’ Palmer said gravely.

‘Matthew was never the same again. We sold the house, it held too many memories, and moved a few streets down. We’ve been here ever since. When Matthew was eighteen, he had a breakdown and was hospitalised. He lives on medication now.’

‘Where is Matthew?’ Elly asked.