‘What does it matter? It all happened so long ago.’ His voice became nostalgic. ‘And they didn’t have any real value.’

Jake’s blood ran cold. ‘Did you sell them?’

‘That’s what we told O’Brien’s sister.’

‘But it’s not what you did?’

‘I’m the lord of this manor.’

‘What exactly does that mean?’

‘I paid for their mothers, I created them from my own seed. They were mine to do with as I pleased.’

‘What did you do with the babies?’ Max Campbell thundered.

‘I put them to work.’

‘Work? Where?’

‘In the vineyard.’

‘You’ve never had any children working in the vineyard,’ his son argued.

‘They’ve been helping me all along.’

As if in slow motion Max Campbell drew a deep, ragged breath, exhaled, then righted his chair and slowly sat at the table. He put his head in his hands, then after a few moments raised it to look at Jake. ‘I’ll help you in any way I can to sort out what happened to the children who passed through here.’ He looked from Jake to Kelly. ‘But I think it’s obvious my father is suffering from dementia. There’ve never been any children in that vineyard. He was always obsessed with keeping children out.’

‘They’re out there right now,’ Campbell senior insisted. ‘It’s why those vines will make gold-medal wine.’

A smile of relief hovered on Max Campbell’s lips. ‘See?’

‘Mason,’ Kelly said. ‘Where are the children?’

Campbell pointed out the window toward the vineyard. ‘Out there.’

‘Specifically, where?’

‘In the vineyard …’

‘He’s clearly mad,’ Max said.

‘… I can’t quite remember where each of them is,’ his father continued. ‘I buried them in random rows.’

Max recoiled, his mouth dropping open.

‘It was the best way for them to serve me,’ Campbell gloated. ‘I sacrificed my own flesh and blood in exchange for the finest grapes in existence. They would have been proud to give up their lives for their progenitor’s fame and glory.’

Max looked as though he wished the ground would swallow him whole. ‘But … I had brothers and sisters … and you killed them!’

His father dismissed him with a wave of one hand. ‘They were only bastards,’

‘What kind of sick—’ Max’s face twisted with outrage. ‘What are you?’

‘It’s a shame though,’ Mason’s voice was snide.

Max bit. ‘What is?’

‘Some of them were boys,’ Mason Campbell sneered at his son. ‘Might have turned out to be better sons than you.’

Jake stood up. ‘Mason Campbell, you are under arrest on suspicion of the rape and murder of multiple children under the age of sixteen.’ He pulled the cuffs from his belt. ‘You do not have to say anything further, but if you do, it may be used in evidence against you.’

‘I’ve done nothing wrong.’