He looks like he wishes the floor would open up.

‘That’s the bad thing,’ he whispers. ‘While my fiancée was being murdered, I was shagging some stranger.’

I think back to our first interview with Rory.

‘When we showed you the CCTV footage of Anna leaving the bar with Reuben and Ed, it seemed like you hadn’t known they were together.’

He scratches the back of his head.

‘I know,’ he says, almost apologetically. ‘I knew they were together in the bar, but I didn’t know they had left together. I was genuinely angry when I saw the footage.’

His eyes look a little wet and he takes a few calming breaths. While he composes himself, I set the good luck card we recovered from Anna’s bedroom in front of him.

‘Did you send this?’ I ask, opening to show the words inside – One day, you’ll get what you deserve.

He nods his head in confirmation. DCI Bob’s smile widens. The look on his face tells me he’s convinced he’s just nailed the case.

‘It was near the start of our relationship,’ Rory confirms. ‘She’d been in bits and pieces, but nothing worth shouting about. I sent her this before she went for an audition for a recurring character in a drama. ITV I think it was. Anyway, the inscription was to show her that I believed in her.’

Bob looks thoroughly unconvinced by the story though I feel a twinge of sympathy and, for the first time since I sat down opposite the supposed killer, a hint of doubt.

‘Why did you turn up at your fiancée’s mother’s house?’ DCI Bob asks, once Rory has had time to compose himself.

‘Fiancée,’ Rory repeats in a growl. ‘You make it sound like she is still around. She was murdered if you remember.’

His lawyer pats his arm and gives him a reassuring nod.

‘OK, why did you turn up at Anna’s mother’s house? he says.

‘I had a few jobs that I’d started that I needed to finish. Like I said, for a few days I couldn’t bring myself to visit her again, but I always fully intended to come back and finish them for her.’

‘And you think turning up late last night was the most appropriate time?’

He shrugs his shoulders. ‘I’m heading back down to London tomorrow and thought that if I could sleep there, get up early and have a full day at her house, I could get all the jobs finished up.’

‘And an alibi, perhaps?’ DCI Bob says with a hint of a grin. Rory’s eyes narrow in confusion and his lawyer sits forward in his chair. ‘You know who Ed Bennett is, don’t you?’ Bob continues.

‘He’s the author, isn’t he? I’ve met him once or twice.’

‘Didn’t like him, did you?’ Bob asks.

Rory doesn’t rise to the bait, his lips remain firmly shut.

‘So you think he might recognise you?’

‘I think he might. He was there the night I confronted Reuben at the book shop. I also met him on the set of a film many years ago. Then again, I didn’t recognise him on the CCTV footage you showed me, the first time I came here,’ he says to me.