He’d made no effort with his appearance, and the shabby leather jacket and baggy jumper he had on made him look like someone who’d spent the day begging on the streets.

James felt a flare of anger, but pushed it down and pressed on with the pre-interview formalities, which included explaining why they were there for the benefit of the tape.

‘My first question to you is this, Mr Foreman,’ James said. ‘Do you know why you’re here?’ Foreman grinned again and this time it produced deep creases around his eyes.

‘Well, you seem to have got it into your heads that I had something to do with the killings at Oaktree Farm,’ he said.

‘And did you?’

‘Of course I bloody well didn’t.’

‘But you did make a serious threat against Mr Bateman on Christmas Eve, which is when we believe the killings took place.’

James picked up one of the documents from the folder. ‘The message was sent at half past four and this is what you wrote, Mr Foreman: “I’ve had enough now and I’m not going to take any more of your shit. You’re about to discover that I don’t make empty threats, Bateman”.’

James sat back and waited for a reaction. Haig started to speak first, but Foreman raised a hand to stop him.

‘There’s a simple explanation for that,’ he said. ‘Bateman owed me money. Five thousand quid to be exact. I loaned it to him over a year ago because he begged me to help him out until his business picked up. We were good mates then so like a fool I gave it to him after he promised to pay me back within months. But then he announced he had cash flow problems because the farm was no longer making money. That was when I discovered that the main reason he was in debt was because he’d acquired a gambling habit. It really pissed me off. I told him to pay me back in instalments, but he kept making excuses as to why he couldn’t. Then, on Christmas Eve morning, he finally admitted he would never be able to pay me back. I was furious and told him I wouldn’t let him get away with it and that I’d be coming to the farm to take away whatever I could in lieu of the money. He told me to fuck off and put the phone down on me. And that was why I sent the message. I had every intention of doing what I said I’d do, but not until after Christmas. Now the bastard won’t have to pay off any of his debts.’

‘So how do we know that you didn’t threaten to hurt him, or kill him even? And that you didn’t go to the farm at the earliest opportunity to carry out the threat?’