The same went for Kenneth O’Connor. They’d thought they had him with the discovery of Mary Bateman’s jewellery box in his home but according to Neil Savage it had been stolen from the farmhouse weeks ago. And his were not the prints found in the space behind the wall in the cellar.

As for Savage, it was unlikely they would get the CPS to press charges as Craig Lawrence had provided him with an alibi.

It didn’t help that all three male suspects had the same shoe size.

Decisions would now have to be taken on what to do with them. Was it worth charging Savage with drug offences? Now that whatever pills or substances he’d taken over several days had finally been flushed through his system, he seemed genuinely grief-stricken over what had happened to his girlfriend. A court would have to take his previous convictions into account and he’d almost certainly receive a custodial sentence but James wasn’t convinced the guy deserved it at this point in time, despite the fact that he clearly wasn’t a very nice person.

There was also a decision to be made over whether to drop the assault charge against Kenneth O’Connor. Even his victim, DC Patterson, was saying he wasn’t bothered either way. And James was only too aware that O’Connor’s lawyer would argue strongly that the attack wasn’t premeditated and that his client had acted instinctively when in a state of panic.

These were all sensitive issues that James decided to give more thought to later. Right now his mind was on the press conference that was about to start.

He watched it on the live feed from Penrith with the rest of the team and was glad that he hadn’t been asked to front it.

DCI Tanner began by giving an overview of the investigation, confirming that Neil Savage was among the four suspects in custody and that he was arrested following the appeal for information on his whereabouts.

‘I don’t intend to disclose the identities of the other individuals at this stage,’ he said.

He then touched on the subject of the skeletal remains found in the cellar at the farm.

‘We strongly believe it to be the skeleton of Megan Roth whose parents died there in 1997. As you’re all aware she was only three weeks old at the time and has been missing ever since. However, we won’t know for sure if it is her until a thorough forensic examination has been carried out.’

After Tanner’s summary came the questions, and the first was from Gordon Carver of the Cumbria Gazette.

‘Have you managed to establish how the baby died?’ he asked. ‘Is there evidence to suggest that she was murdered?’

‘It’s too early to say at this time,’ Tanner replied. ‘And it’s possible, of course, that we will never know, given how long ago it happened.’