In another room the officers roused two girls who’d been sharing a bed with an array of sex toys. They looked to be barely out of their teens and one of them appeared to be covered in her own vomit.

The fourth guy was by himself in the third bedroom and when James entered a uniformed officer was talking to him.

He was sitting on the bed with his back resting against the headboard, his chest bare above his tracksuit bottoms and his face was expressionless, eyes blank and vacant. It looked as though he wasn’t fully awake.

James’s mind flashed on the photo they’d circulated of Neil Savage and he knew right away that this was their man.

‘Hello, Mr Savage,’ he said. ‘I’m Detective Inspector Walker and I’m here because I need to ask you some questions, but before I do you should know that you do not have to say anything, but it may harm your defence if you do not mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court. Anything you do say may be given in evidence.’

Savage shook his head. ‘I don’t get it. What’s this about?’

James cleared his throat. ‘My questions relate to Charlotte Bateman and her parents.’

‘What about them?’ Savage replied groggily.

James stepped closer to the bed. ‘I want to know if you killed them.’

Savage’s mouth dropped open. ‘Is this a joke? If it is, I’m not fucking laughing.’

‘It’s no joke, Mr Savage,’ James said. ‘And are you seriously telling me that you didn’t know they were dead?’

‘Why are you saying that? They aren’t dead. How can they be? I was with them on Christmas Eve.’

‘I know you were. And that’s when they were killed. Charlotte was stabbed to death and her parents were both shot. But then you know that, don’t you?’

Savage shook his head again. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. You can’t be serious.’

‘Oh, but I am, Mr Savage. It’s been all over the news so I don’t understand why you’re acting surprised.’

‘I’m not acting. There’s no phone signal here and the telly is never on. We cut ourselves off so that we can party and do other …’ His words dried up and a shocked expression froze on his face.

‘You need to get dressed and come with us to the station,’ James told him. ‘You’ve got a lot of explaining to do.’

Savage’s lips started to tremble and his nostrils flared.

‘Oh my God it’s true, isn’t it?’ he spluttered.

James nodded slowly, which prompted the young man to let out a strangled sob. A moment later his face crumbled and his body seemed to collapse in on itself.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR