In the desk drawer James found an address book that included contact details for his customers and acquaintances. James was poring through it when Stevens suddenly drew his attention to a sheet of paper that he’d plucked from the wastebasket next to the desk.

‘Holy fuck, guv,’ the DS said. ‘You need to read this. It looks like Nash started to write a suicide note to his parents but decided not to finish it.’

James took the crinkled note in his gloved hand and his stomach knotted with tension as he read the neat handwriting.

Mum and Dad,

Please forgive me for taking the coward’s way out. It’s just got too much. The police have been to see me and I’m sure it’s only a matter of time before they find out that I lied to them.

My life is no longer worth living and I can’t risk going to prison. But first I want you and the world to know how and why my beloved Charlotte was killed. I swear it wasn’t me who did it, but unless I’m dead I fear I won’t be believed. It’s such a horrible story and it starts with what really happened at Oaktree Farm twenty-four years ago.

I can’t …

James finished reading the page and instinctively looked at the wastebasket, which was now empty.

‘It was the only thing in there,’ Stevens told him. ‘And it was screwed into a ball.’

‘So, he either changed his mind or this was the first attempt at a note and he finished it on another sheet of paper.’

‘It’s a real eye-opener, guv,’ Stevens said. ‘We really need to know what else he was going to say.’

James nodded. ‘Too bloody right we do. It sounds like William Nash can help us solve not only this crime but also potentially the one that took place at Oaktree Farm over two decades ago.’

CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE

SIX MONTHS AGO

Charlotte Bateman can’t believe that this day has finally arrived. There have been times over the past few years when she’d convinced herself that it never would.

As she zips up the last of her bags, she feels an overwhelming sense of freedom. At last, at the age of twenty-three, she’s moving away from Oaktree Farm in order to embark on a new and more fulfilling life.

She doesn’t know if her relationship with Neil Savage will stand the test of time and in truth she doesn’t really care. She’s just grateful that he’s invited her to move into his flat in Kendal. It’ll give her a chance to assert her independence and learn how to survive beyond the shadow cast by her parents.

She knows they don’t approve of Neil because they’ve told her more times than she cares to remember. But in her eyes that makes him all the more appealing.