‘Yes, and she pleaded with me to go to the police, but I told her that if I did, there was a good chance I’d get the blame. I did keep thinking about it over Christmas Day and Boxing Day, but I convinced myself I was doing the right thing. And then when the news broke, I knew I’d left it too late to change my mind anyway and would have to keep schtum.’

‘Did you ever go down into the cellar when you were at the farm?’ Abbott asked.

He shook his head. ‘I told you what happened. After I saw the bodies I turned around and left. I couldn’t get away from there quick enough.’

‘And does that mean you didn’t see anyone else at or near the farm?’ she pressed him.

‘It was otherwise deserted as far as I could tell,’ he answered.

James got Foreman to repeat what he’d said and they pumped him with more questions. He stuck to the same answers, but the longer it went on the more emotional he became.

At one point a giant sob escaped him and he said over and over that he was sorry.

‘I know I made a huge fucking mistake by not calling you as soon as I entered the house,’ he said, his voice close to hysterical. ‘But I panicked and the longer I left it the more guilty I knew I’d look. Please believe me when I say I didn’t kill that family. I don’t have it in me to do something like that.’

CHAPTER FORTY-FIVE

The interview with Dean Foreman concluded at 1 p.m. and he was taken to a cell to be held in custody.

Detectives Stevens and Patterson had already finished questioning his wife by then and she was also in a holding cell.

‘She got really upset after we showed her the traffic camera photographs,’ Stevens told James. ‘But she eventually calmed and admitted that she’d lied for her husband. She insists he said that the Batemans were dead when he got to the farm and she believed him. And still does.’

‘We’ll let them both stew for a while and then have another crack either later today or tomorrow morning,’ James said. ‘In the meantime, send a team back to the house to make sure we didn’t miss anything the first time around. And we should also visit Foreman’s warehouse. We might find something there.’

Before briefing the troops, James had a one-to-one with DCI Tanner in his office. He filled him in on the interview with Foreman and told him what the wife had said.