Robert still doesn’t regret buying the place from Simon’s brother, even though Mary wanted to move elsewhere. He believes it was the right thing to do and he’s hopeful that his wife will eventually come around to accepting that.

He’s just glad that they’ve been able to keep the business going to save the animals, and at the same time secure a better future for themselves. It would have been much easier to have walked away, and he’s sure that most people in their position would have. But Robert has always prided himself on never taking the easy route. To him it was a challenge as well as a way to keep the Roths’ legacy alive.

Robert becomes aware that his wife is quietly sobbing again so he reaches for her hand and gives it a gentle squeeze.

He knew she would find today hard going. Even before they left the house she was in tears after they reminisced about the last time their two families were all together. It was such a delight to see the two babies lying side by side on the sofa and to talk about how they would grow up together.

But that was before tragedy struck and everything changed.

Robert feels the tears press against his own eyes and a familiar ache fill his chest.

He needs a distraction so he lifts his head and looks at the people around him.

Simon’s brother Mark is standing behind the headstone with his wife. They’ve come all the way from Sevenoaks in Kent to be here.

To their left stand Grace and Richard Kellerman and their teenage daughter Annie. He hasn’t seen them since the funerals and he remembers Grace telling him something he didn’t know – that Amanda took Megan to their house in the village not long before she and her husband were killed.

Behind them Robert can see Giles Keegan, the detective who was in charge of the investigation into the deaths. He was the one who phoned to tell the Batemans what had happened at Oaktree Farm. And to his credit, he had worked tirelessly in pursuit of the truth about the killings and Megan’s disappearance.

Robert recognises most of the other people in the churchyard, but some he doesn’t, including a photographer from the Cumbria Gazette who has been snapping away throughout.

The story no longer features in the national press or on the TV news, but every now and then the local rags return to it and the headlines usually go something like ‘SO WHERE IS MEGAN?’ and ‘IS MISSING MEGAN DEAD OR ALIVE?’

Father Silver finishes his prayer and makes the sign of the cross on his chest. Then he thanks everyone for coming and tells them to keep a place in their hearts for the Roth family.