The questions that followed veered between the past and the present.

‘How likely is it that Robert Bateman shot himself after killing his wife and daughter?’

‘Do you believe that baby Megan was murdered by her parents?’

‘You made it known that Neil Savage was with the family on Christmas Eve. So, has he told you what happened?’

‘Why has it taken so many years for the baby’s remains to be found?’

‘Is it true that the Batemans were having severe financial problems, which is why the farm was up for sale?’

‘A rumour is now circulating that Mary Bateman was having an affair. Is that true?’

The presser lasted for fifty minutes and James felt that Tanner gave a solid performance but it was clear that the journos had been hoping to hear that much more progress had been made with the investigation.

James knew it would heap further pressure on the team and no doubt the Chief Constable would be wanting to know why none of those arrested had so far been charged.

He spent the next half an hour in one of the soft interview suites with DC Patterson and Robert Bateman’s brother Todd who had flown in from Ireland.

The man had a long face and deep-set eyes, and it looked as though he hadn’t slept in days. He was four years older than Robert and had moved to Dublin seven years ago after marrying a woman he met on a business trip there.

‘Farming was never for me,’ he told them. ‘I much prefer living and working in the city. But Robert loved it and when he first took over Oaktree Farm, he made a real go of it. It became a struggle in recent years though, same as it did for a lot of farmers in this part of the world.’

‘Did you see much of him?’ James asked.

Todd shook his head. ‘We last got together about nine months ago when I came for a visit. He told me then that he was finding it really hard to make ends meet. I was the one who urged him to sell up because I could see it was taking a toll on the family. Mary was stressed to bits and Charlotte was going off the rails. But I don’t believe for a second that it got so bad that my brother decided to kill his wife and daughter and then himself. Robert loved them and when I spoke to him by phone a few weeks ago he was relieved that he and Mary were about to embark on a new life. He’d finally accepted that the farm was being sold and they were looking forward to settling down somewhere else.’

‘We’ve been told by Neil Savage that Charlotte claimed she’d found out that her mother had been unfaithful to her dad,’ James said. ‘Do you know if there’s any truth in that?’