‘It’s a bad one,’ he said. ‘There’s no question the bodies have been there for several days, but I need you to pin down the accurate time of death for me as soon as you can.’

‘I’ll do my best, James. Have the victims been tampered with?’

‘First responders checked to see if they were alive, but that was it.’

‘Good. Are you coming back in?’

‘Not just yet. I want to brief the team about some new information that’s come to light.’

His detectives had dispersed to carry out further checks around the farm and to make more notes but he spotted DC Abbott and called her over.

‘Could you go and round everyone up?’ he asked. ‘I’ve got some information to share which will need to be actioned.’

While he waited for her to pass on the message, he pulled out his phone and tapped Oaktree Farm killings into the search engine.

The results showed a range of stories on various local and national news sites dated twenty-four years ago. Some included photos of the family – Simon and Amanda Roth, and baby Megan.

At the time of his death Simon was thirty-four and he was a bulky, bespectacled man with a hard face and short curly hair. Amanda was the same age, but much shorter than her husband. She had a thin face, pinched features and long, wavy hair.

There was nothing particularly distinctive about Megan. At only a few weeks old she looked to James like any other tiny baby, and the thought that she might have come to harm back then provoked a sudden tightness in his throat. He could well understand why the mystery surrounding her disappearance had played on Giles Keegan’s mind ever since. Knowing that he hadn’t been able to solve it would have been a hard thing to live with.

Once the team was back together, James told them about the first Oaktree Farm killings. Not one of them was familiar with the case or its details.

‘The surprises are coming thick and fast,’ James said. ‘I suggest you familiarise yourselves with the events of twenty-four years ago because Robert Bateman worked here as a farmhand at the time and went on to buy the place some months later. His wife Mary is said to have told people in the village that she thought the house was haunted because she often heard noises that appeared to come from behind the walls.’

‘That’s all we need,’ Stevens said. ‘If there’s a supernatural angle to this story the media will lap it up, even though it’ll be total bollocks.’