‘No, I wasn’t. Charlotte never mentioned it.’

James continued to press him on the subject of the cellar but he carried on denying that he had ever ventured down there.

When James called a halt to the interview, he told Savage that he would be held in custody while further enquiries were made and he was warned that he might face drugs charges. Neither he nor his lawyer raised any objections.

When he left the interview room, James thought about what he’d been told. The answers Savage had given seemed convincing enough. But he had his doubts about the claim that he had never been inside the cellar and was not aware that the internal door had been blocked off.

Somehow it just didn’t ring true.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

TWELVE YEARS AGO

The call from the school comes two days before Charlotte’s twelfth birthday.

Mary answers the phone and the head teacher tells her that her daughter is upset and needs to be picked up and taken home.

‘I regret to inform you that a fellow pupil has told her what happened to the previous owners of Oaktree Farm,’ Mrs Wilkinson says. ‘I know it’s something you’ve deliberately tried to keep from her and with good reason. But Charlotte is pretty shocked and she’s being teased over it. It’s Friday so I’m hoping that it won’t be such a hot topic by Monday.’

Mary and Robert had known that Charlotte would find out about the Roths eventually. They’ve managed to keep it from her for twelve years, but she’s now at an age when it’s far more difficult to shield her from the ugly realities of life.

It had helped that people living in and around Kirkby Abbey had long ago stopped talking about it. They no longer mark the anniversaries of Simon and Amanda’s deaths, and have given up all hope that Megan will ever be found alive.

Mary drives to the school alone because Robert is busy shearing sheep. It’s one of the many jobs that makes life on Oaktree Farm so tough and time consuming.

She’s used it by now, but still regrets allowing her husband to talk her into taking it over. And it was never just because of what happened to the Roths, as everyone assumed. She’s always felt that they should have moved away from the area and started a new, simpler life elsewhere.

But Robert had always wanted to run his own farm and so he seized the opportunity when it was presented to him.

And when it comes to decisions, he’s usually the one who makes them.

Charlotte is sitting on a chair in Mrs Wilkinson’s office when Mary gets to the school. A ball of sadness explodes in her chest when she sees how troubled her daughter looks.