There was a washing machine and tumble dryer, shelves full of powders and soaps, and a shoe rack, the Gibbses’ footwear – their mud-caked wellies, their walking boots, their old trainers – stacked in a mess of upturned soles and snaking laces. For some reason, the image gave me pause, the way they were all discarded there, one on top of the other. It was so mundane: whenever it was they dumped their shoes here, the three of them could hardly have imagined that they might never do it again.

I locked up and went to the barns beyond the house, to a workshop in which Chris Gibbs had kept tools, and took pictures on my phone. After that, I returned to my car, loading everything in, ensuring it was all secure for the drive back. Ross wandered over, this time holding an umbrella. I held up the property keys.

‘Mind if I keep these for a day or two?’

‘No,’ he said, ‘of course not.’

I didn’t really want to have to return here with Healy, because any journey with him, anywhere, represented a risk – but I couldn’t help thinking it might be useful to get a second pair of eyes on these places. Nine people, four houses, eight rooms in each of the new-builds, ten in the farmhouse, plus barns, a workshop, and that was without even stepping on to the surrounding moorland: I’d been thorough, and was pretty confident nothing major had been overlooked – but that was a lot of ground to cover.

I dug the photograph of Randolph and Emiline’s Volkswagen camper van out of my pocket and said, ‘You mentioned your mum and dad’s car to me earlier.’

He nodded.

‘And the Daveys’ and the Gibbses’ vehicles are obviously still here too.’

‘I think Rina and Tori feel the same way as I do.’

‘You all want to keep the cars here in case your families return?’

‘Right.’

I handed him the picture of the Volkswagen.

‘Any idea where Randolph and Emiline’s camper van went?’

‘No,’ he said. ‘It was gone when I got here.’

I’d read the same thing in the official investigation. The other vehicles had all been taken away for testing – and returned afterwards – but the police had never had the opportunity with the camper van. It hadn’t been parked here on the day Ross came to the village and realized everyone was missing – and it had never been found in the time since. I studied the photo again. Could they all have left in one vehicle?

‘Thank you.’

I looked up at Ross. ‘Sorry?’

‘I just wanted to say thank you,’ he repeated quietly. ‘When you called me up out of the blue the other day, when I phoned Rina and Tori and told them that you had offered to look into what happened up here, it was just … it just felt so … it just felt …’