Robert has told her time and again that it’s all in her imagination and he doesn’t take her seriously when she says she can feel a hostile presence. She’s had the same response over the years from her doctor. But Mary is convinced that they’re both wrong, and that Simon and Amanda have decided to hang around.

Perhaps it’s their way of getting revenge for the terrible things that were done to them.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

What Neil Savage told them had thrown the case wide open. James said as much to the team when they got together after DCI Tanner had finished questioning Craig Lawrence, who had confirmed Savage’s Christmas Eve alibi.

‘Lawrence insists that Savage went to his house in Kirkby Abbey after he left the farm and then stayed there all night,’ James said. ‘If true it means that he wasn’t at Oaktree Farm when the killings took place. We won’t just take Lawrence’s word for it, of course. We’ll search his house, run a background check and speak to neighbours. But it seems likely that we’ve lost our prime suspect.’

He then ran through all the points raised during the interview, starting with Savage’s description of Charlotte’s reaction after Heather Redgrave called to tell her that her boyfriend had cheated on her. James then referred to the shoeprints in the snow that Bateman apparently claimed he saw just before entering the house.

‘He told Savage and Mary that they led from the lane to the exterior entrance to the cellar, but there were none coming the other way. It made him believe that someone was down there. But before he had time to investigate, he heard Charlotte scream inside the house, which sent him rushing in. Now what we don’t know is whether he went to check the cellar after Savage had left. If he didn’t then perhaps whoever was down there came into the house and killed them all.’

At this point DC Abbott mentioned that forensics had found a number of fingerprints in the cellar and the concealed space at the top of the stairs.

‘Most belong to Robert Bateman,’ she said. ‘None so far belong to Neil Savage, Dean Foreman or Kenneth O’Connor. But there are several other prints that haven’t yet been processed.’

‘What about the bloodstain on the stairs?’ James asked.

‘That’s still being analysed, guv.’

‘Then it remains a bloody mystery – excuse the pun. Whose blood is it and how did it get there?’