Matt spoke about the Lake District as if it was make-believe and separate from the rest of the UK – which consisted primarily of London – and it irked Kelly. She’d grown protective of her county, and its reputation for being backwards and in the sticks was something that infuriated her. She also noticed that, despite introducing her to deliver what she knew on George Murphy, Matt had taken over. He just couldn’t help himself. She decided to let it go. Let him sweat over the detail. A young officer caught her eye and a tiny curl of his mouth indicated to her that his boss did this a lot. She gave him an imperceptible nod, and they both went back to concentrating on the DCI.

‘What’s next?’ Matt looked at Kelly and waited. Now he wanted her to speak!

‘Like I said, the burgled items include some very specialist sailing equipment. We need to contact as many dealers as we can. These are few and far between, due to the high value and antique nature of the artefacts. I want to include overseas interest.’

She waited for people to take notes.

‘Sebastian Montague-Roland.’ His picture came up on screen. ‘His business is mainly in London. He dabbles in stocks and told me that the trust issue had been “sorted”; he’s now worth a handsome sum. I think we need to treat him as a person of interest. Only he and George had access to Allerdale House on the night in question, though it is highly likely that the doors were unlocked. There’s no cleaner, and an expensive refurb planned for later this year hasn’t yet started. The place should have been deserted, though we are looking into a building company who’d made some initial plans. Montague-Roland informed us that he tried to contact George on Sunday evening to see if any workmen had been to the property, but he didn’t answer the phone. He supplied us with a number for the builders and they told us that they hadn’t yet got round to sending anyone. So that rules them out of our inquiry for the time being.

‘Now we come to George’s colleagues. DCI Carter?’

Matt stood up and put his hands in his pockets. He didn’t use notes.

‘The note left with the victims firmly places the blame on Emily Wilson. Was it a plant? A diversion?’

The note came up on the screen. Bitch. It was brutally jarring. The female officers visibly shifted in their seats.

‘It implies an affair with Mike Hudson, but this is vociferously denied by next of kin. It’s a touchy subject. Sometimes nobody knows that a sexual liaison is in full swing.’ There was a pause, and Kelly felt herself blush again.