His recount of the night matches the action played out on the CCTV images.

‘And the next day, you travelled to Scotland for a writing retreat, is that correct?’

He rubs his hand on the back of his neck and takes a deep breath.

‘That was the plan, but sadly I didn’t feel up to it. My bags were packed and I was excited to see some old friends, but instead I couldn’t get out of bed for a few days. I knew we had these events coming up so I was trying to recover.’

‘What was it?’ I ask.

‘The flu, I think. I just kept being sick and had a high temperature. Luckily, it had mostly passed in time for the event, though I still don’t feel back to my best.’

‘Can anyone verify this?’ I enquire.

He shakes his head.

‘Single, sadly,’ he says with a melancholic smile. I make a note to find any way to verify his version of events. Up until now, I hadn’t considered him as a suspect, but this new revelation that he was in the area and not ensconced in the Scottish Highlands rules him very much in.

‘Did you know Anna personally?’ Liam asks.

Ed pushes himself out of the sofa again and walks over to the window, pulls the blinds to omit the oppressive rays of sunlight and stands leaning against the marble fireplace. The hoodie he is wearing is at least two sizes too large, and I wonder if he was once the correct size for the garment and has subsequently lost a lot of weight or if he simply prefers the comfort of loose clothing.

‘Not personally, no.’ He pauses and unleashes a volley of coughs.

He holds his hand up in apology and shuffles back over to the sofa, picking up his water and taking a few small sips.

‘Professionally, yes. You see, before I became a full-time author, I was a make-up artist, mostly on fashion shoots for magazines but occasionally on film sets. When I sold the film rights to my first book, the deal was enough that I could give up the make-up gig and I did for a while, but to be honest, I kinda missed it. When the filming started on Blood Ice,’ he grimaces, ‘I was on set anyway, as a producer and I helped out occasionally in the make-up department, just for fun. On the days when Anna was on set, I helped apply some of her prosthetics and we got on well. But that’s as far as I knew her and after I was thrown off set, I never saw her again until she turned up at Limas.’

‘Thrown off set?’

Ed looks like he wishes he hadn’t let that little nugget of information slip. ‘Not thrown off, per se. Asked to leave.’

‘Asked?’

‘Told. Told quite firmly actually, by Jay. You probably saw him at the book event; the huge, loudmouth American. He said I was getting too big for my boots, interfering when I saw that they had changed something from the book. Told me it was, and I quote, a fucking adaptation and that I had no say in the creative process.’