James knew it would have been a waste of time asking him to hold fire on the story. The guy had got lucky because he happened to live in the village. But at least he didn’t know that Nash had tried to kill himself or about the unfinished suicide note. That was a relief and James took it to mean that the information had not been leaked by a member of his team.

James couldn’t be bothered to get suited up in a forensic gown so he didn’t go inside the cottage. He could see from the doorway that the SOCOs were still hard at it. Transparent plastic stepping plates were dotted about the floor and fingerprint dust hung in the air.

He was briefed by the team leader who said they hadn’t come across any trace evidence linking Nash to the farm killings.

‘A lot of his stuff has been sent to Kendal,’ he said. ‘As well as his laptop and paperwork, there are three bags full of his clothes.’

James thanked him and checked his watch. Seven forty-five. He called the office and told them to prepare for a team meeting at nine.

He was on the road when his phone rang and he was surprised when Dominic Martin, the forensic anthropologist, asked him if he was free to talk.

‘I’m driving, but you’re on speaker,’ James said. ‘What have you got for me?’

‘Something I did not expect to find,’ Martin said. ‘My team has been working around the clock and the final results have just come through on the DNA from the baby’s skeleton.’

‘And do they confirm that it’s Megan Roth?’

‘No, they don’t. They show that the baby buried in the cellar was not Megan because the DNA from the bones does not match the profiles we have on file for Simon and Amanda Roth.’

Martin’s words sucked the air out of James’s lungs and every muscle in his body grew tense.

‘But that doesn’t make sense,’ he said. ‘Megan disappeared at the same time they were killed.’

‘I know that,’ Martin responded. ‘And it’s why I decided to cross check the DNA with those of Robert and Mary Bateman.’

‘And?’

‘And they’re a match. The baby who was placed in the steel box and buried under the floorboards belonged to the Batemans.’

‘You’re kidding me.’

‘No, Inspector. It’s true. As you know they had a child, a little girl, just a few weeks before Amanda Roth gave birth to Megan.’

‘Then it means that the girl who grew up on Oaktree Farm and died on Christmas Eve was not the real Charlotte Bateman,’ James said. ‘She was Megan Roth, who went missing twenty-four years ago when she was just three weeks old.’

CHAPTER SIXTY