‘I don’t mind talking to you,’ Marc exclaimed. ‘I haven’t got anything to hide. I was working all evening. I was mainly in the kitchen. Left about ten fifteen.’ He stared. ‘Don’t tell me it was a kitchen knife! He had a nice set of Sabatier. Did someone shove one of those into his neck?’

‘Who said anything about his neck?’ Hawthorne said.

Marc faltered. ‘Just a figure of speech.’

Hawthorne turned his attention to the assistant. ‘How long have you worked for Mr Bellamy?’ he asked.

‘Kathryn only joined me six months ago.’ Marc had decided to answer for her. ‘My last assistant – Jo – went on to Saturday Kitchen.’ His little eyes brightened. ‘She was poached!’ It was a joke he had made many times before but this time it fell flat and he knew it. ‘I was about to advertise but Jo recommended Kathryn. I interviewed her and we got on like the proverbial burning bungalow, so I hired her on the spot.’

‘I spent two years working for a party planner when I came out of uni,’ Kathryn explained. ‘Jo and I were roomies and I was always jealous of her. I thought Marc’s recipes were the best. When she told me she was leaving, I asked her to put in a word for me and she did.’

Hawthorne glanced across at Bellamy. ‘You were at school with Charles le Mesurier.’

‘Westland College. Yes. That’s right.’

‘How did you get on?’

Marc might have been reticent while le Mesurier was alive, but he wasn’t afraid now and he let loose. ‘We didn’t bloody get on. Nobody did. He was a bully and an arsehole and everybody hated him. I spent my whole time there avoiding him.’

‘He said that you left the school early.’

‘I did and he was part of the reason.’ It wasn’t particularly warm in the kitchen, but he was sweating. He took out a handkerchief and wiped his face. ‘I was born and brought up in Halifax. But my dad was in the navy and he got a posting to the south coast. That’s how I ended up in a bloody boarding school. I didn’t like it there from day one. I was never happy.’

‘Why did he call you Tea Leaf?’

‘Because I drank a lot of tea! Why do you think? We all had stupid names for each other. We used to call him Flash after the character in those books. Flashman. He hadn’t changed much, growing up, I can tell you that!’

‘Did he bully you?’

‘Oh, come on!’ Marc Bellamy sneered. ‘What are you trying to say, Mr Hawthorne? That I stuck a knife in him because he bullied me at school? No. I just told you. I avoided him like the bubonic and he never came near me.’

‘So why did you agree to come to Alderney? You must have known he’d be here.’