‘The other people at Black Gale? No, never. In fact, I remember him saying once how lucky he and Laura felt – they’d built those houses, and they’d ended up with three sets of neighbours they loved. I mean, it could have been a disaster. They could have ended up next door to the Manson Family.’ She leaned back in her chair and put her hands behind her head. ‘I stayed up there for a week when they first put those properties on the market,’ she went on, coming back in towards the camera, so her face filled the frame again, ‘and Chris was absolutely bricking it. “What if we end up with neighbours from hell? What if this ruins everything?” He could be a bit of a worrier sometimes, my brother, but actually I could see where he was coming from. He’d built those houses so that they could give themselves and Mark a really nice future, but Chris was right: it could have been an absolute bloody mess. In reality, the whole thing was a big leap into the unknown. And that area, it’s pretty remote. I mean, they’d only just got decent broadband, let alone fibre, and being that secluded – it doesn’t always appeal to everyone, does it?’

She was right. In fact, being so far removed from other people could create problems, and what seemed idyllic to start with could soon become oppressive. I’d wondered, as I’d looked around Black Gale earlier, whether the seclusion might have played a part – could it have led one of the villagers into making an irrational decision? Could it driven them to depression? – but there was no evidence of that and it felt like a stretch. The village was isolated, but it wasn’t at the ends of the earth.

I changed direction. ‘You mentioned last night that you’d done some digging around yourself on Black Gale?’

‘Right.’ She instantly looked apologetic, and said, ‘What you’ve got to remember is that – until you picked up the phone to us all the other day – this whole thing was dead.’

‘It’s okay,’ I replied, holding up a conciliatory hand. ‘The question wasn’t loaded. I was just wondering what you’d found. To me, the police seem to have done a pretty decent job. What do you think?’

‘Don’t ask how I got hold of the file,’ she said, ‘but I’ve seen the investigation and I’d have to say that – broadly – I agree with you.’

‘Only broadly?’

She looked down into her lap and I heard the sound of pages being turned: she must have had a notepad of some kind. When she looked up again, she said, ‘What do you make of the fact that there are no suspicious tyre tracks or footprints?’