I regarded the room as it was now. ‘And there was no clue as to who really did kill Dan?’ I asked George.

‘No, ma’am. When Mr Durbridge and I watched the recording, there was just a jump in the footage as I said.’

‘How exactly could that happen?’ I frowned.

‘Mr Durbridge asked me the same question. The only thing I can think of is that someone, the killer, erased the minutes that revealed his or her identity, then set the recording to restart when they knew the coast would be clear. You see, the camera can be both motion or time activated.’

I thought for a moment. ‘How hard would it be to wipe the part of the recording that showed the murder and then restart it?’

George considered. ‘Mr Jeavons’ computer was on the desk in front of him when he was killed and the program to monitor each camera feed in the apartment was running, so …’

‘So anyone who knew about the cameras and was familiar with the program could’ve deleted the appropriate section of the footage?’ I finished for him.

‘Yes, ma’am.’

‘How hard would that be?’

‘Not hard at all, ma’am. You open the program, click on the appropriate room, scrub back to the approximate time of the incident and delete the relevant section of the recording. The app would then allow you to specify when recording should begin again. Plenty of time for the killer to make good his or her escape before then.’

‘Who knew Dan had a camera in this study?’

‘I believe Mr Durbridge did, Patrix Ellerman knew as Mr Jeavons’ ex-lawyer and friend, as did his brother, Tom, Eva Foxton, Jarvis of course, and maybe Bella Monroe if Mr Durbridge or Mr Jeavons told her.’

I raised an eyebrow, feeling deprived. ‘Basically, that’s everyone except Kellan Bruemann, Owen Dowd and me.’

‘It would appear so, yes, ma’am.’

‘And erasing the footage didn’t require a password?’

George shrugged. ‘No. Mr Jeavons’ computer required both facial and fingerprint recognition or a two-tier password to start up and he believed that was sufficient.’

‘If computer access required facial recognition or a fingerprint to start, how did you and Tobey get to review the recording? That must’ve been considerably after the event.’

‘Mr Jeavons set up his laptop’s security so that his face or fingerprints were only required after a complete computer shutdown. While it was up and running, and even in sleep mode, no such biometrics were required. Since he never took the laptop out of this apartment, he considered it perfectly safe here.’

‘I see. George, who d’you think murdered Dan?’

George shrugged. ‘It’s not my place to speculate, ma’am.’

‘There’s no clue as to whether or not the killer was a Nought or a Cross, a man or a woman?’