‘He’s been a helicopter pilot in the army for decades, and now he’s an instructor at the Army Aviation Centre in Middle Wallop, in Hampshire. Even I know that helicopters are simple machines, there’s only so much that can go wrong. They’re like tanks in that sense. He saw it come down.’

This was news to Kelly. ‘He watched it?’

‘Yup. He also told me that he knew the pilots.’

‘Jesus, I need to speak to him. Is he still there?’

‘I haven’t ventured downstairs yet. I did tell him to hang around though, and he said he would. He was planning to go up Great Gable, but obviously there’s no climbing round here today. Listen, Kelly, about last night…’ he added.

‘Don’t, it’s fine,’ she said.

‘I got carried away, you know? The emotion of the day and all that.’

‘You didn’t actually ask me to sleep with you.’

He sighed. ‘I wish I had. That’s all I want every night, Kel. You must know that. I didn’t want this.’

It was her turn to sigh. ‘I know, I’m sorry.’ She was instantly angry at herself for apologising and she paced up and down the terrace. She’d come outside to make the call, so she wasn’t distracted by Lizzie. It was freezing but fresh. Her breath came in clouds out of her mouth, but it still didn’t mean that her words made sense. They floated away on the crisp morning and she didn’t know what to say next.

‘Can you get him to call me as soon as he can? What’s his name?’ Kelly was assuming her role as lead investigator until the accident people took over.

‘He’s an Army Air Corps major. Lance Tatterall. He’s the chief instructor of Apache pilot training.’

‘Was he the military guy helping out last night?’

‘Yes.’

‘Are military helicopters that different to civilian ones?’ she asked.

‘No, not at all. He’s adamant that it was an uncontrolled spin due to the tail rotor coming off. He saw it spin off before the crash. He teaches this shit all day long, and he said mechanical failure that would lead to that sort of thing is rare. The ’copter was also newly ordered.’

‘How the hell did he know that?’

‘He’s a bit of a nerd and models like that are like the Rolls-Royces of the helicopter world. He looked it up. He took the N-number.’

‘The what?’

‘It’s an ID number on all military and commercial craft.’

‘Like a number plate?’

‘Exactly. He saw the tail rotor come off, but when he got up there, the tail section itself was amongst the debris. He said he teaches about recovering spins all the time. Anyway, I won’t bore you with the mechanics.’

‘No, please do, I think I can follow,’ she said.