He couldn’t shake the thought that there was something he wasn’t seeing. Something that connected the two crimes other than the fact that they both took place at Oaktree Farm and involved the families who lived there. Was there more to it than mere coincidence? That was the million-dollar question and he couldn’t yet answer it.

He parked in front of the church and climbed out of the car. The air felt raw and a noisy wind was dancing through the streets of the village.

As he walked through the gate into the churchyard, an empty ache touched the pit of his stomach as it always did when he came here. That was partly because two of the people murdered by the Kirkby Abbey serial killer a year ago were buried here. And their deaths continued to press heavily on his conscience because he hadn’t been able to save them.

Their graves were at the back of the church and he wouldn’t be paying them a visit this evening. Instead, he squeezed the memory of what happened to them to one side and went looking for the headstone he had come to see. He knew from the photo he’d downloaded of the anniversary service that it was at the front of the church and to the right of the path, pretty close to the graves of Annie’s parents.

He found it easily enough, but because of the fading light he had to use the torch on his phone to read the epitaph.

In loving memory of Simon and Amanda Roth – together in life and death. Their daughter Megan will always be in their hearts.

James read it through twice and the words evoked a strong emotional response inside him. There was a deep sense of sadness, as well as an element of frustration because their deaths, and what happened to their daughter, were still mysteries after all this time.

He wondered what secrets Simon and Amanda took to their graves. Did they know before they died what had happened to Megan? Was she the reason their lives came to such an abrupt and brutal end?

It felt to James as though he was investigating two crimes that were committed twenty-four years apart.

The deaths of Robert, Mary and Charlotte Bateman were just as mysterious as those of Simon and Amanda Roth. And James feared that if he didn’t solve this latest crime it would be history repeating itself, with people still asking two decades from now what had happened at Oaktree Farm on that fateful Christmas Eve.

It seemed incongruous to James that as the evening closed in a wide range of Christmas lights started coming on throughout Kirkby Abbey. Windows sparkled, elves and reindeer figurines flashed on and off in front gardens, and the huge multi-coloured tree lit up the market square.