Nothing to report, mate. We’re following up a couple of leads and several unverified sightings. I’ll let you know as soon as there’s news.

Annie stayed in bed while James showered and dressed, but she was awake so he made her a cup of tea.

‘Happy New Year’s Eve, my love,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry I had to disturb you, but I need to go in early.’

She smiled up at him. ‘Not a problem. Hopefully I’ll go back to sleep. I feel really tired.’

He gave her a kiss and said he’d call her later.

Before leaving, he made up a flask of coffee and took it across the road to the two officers who were watching the house. They both looked tired and stressed out and told him they were due to be relieved in about an hour.

The drive to Kendal wasn’t as bad as James had feared it would be. It had stopped snowing and the gritters had already been out clearing some of the roads.

As he drove, he listened to the local news on the radio and it came as no surprise that the lead story was the discovery of the baby’s skeleton.

… Police believe it to be that of three-week-old Megan Roth, who disappeared when her parents were found dead at Oaktree Farm in 1997. The remains were discovered by officers investigating the Christmas Eve killings of Robert and Mary Bateman and their daughter Charlotte. Police still don’t know if anyone outside the family was involved, however, a number of people have been questioned and we understand that four individuals are currently being held in police custody.

James was sure the report would encourage most listeners to believe that the police were close to solving the crime. But he knew that not to be the case as they didn’t yet have enough evidence to charge any of the suspects. And they still didn’t know exactly what had occurred on Christmas Eve at Oaktree Farm.

Or why an entire family was wiped out.

James just hoped that today he and his colleagues would hit upon the breakthrough that they so desperately needed.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

James had been at the station for three hours and still there was no breakthrough.

He’d held a team briefing and re-interviewed the four suspects who had been in custody overnight. He went in hard in the hope that he could trip them up or get them to change their stories. But his approach had proven unsuccessful.

Dean Foreman continued to insist that when he arrived at the farm on Christmas Eve the Batemans were already dead. And his wife repeated exactly what she’d said during the last interview.

Their home had been searched again and the staff at Foreman’s warehouse had been spoken to, but nothing new or incriminating had surfaced.