‘Okay, there’s now a motive,’ said Carl Hoskins, as he posted a sandwich into his mouth, and nodded his head with approval. ‘Money,’ he chewed.

‘But not very professional,’ said Hodges. ‘For that amount of dosh, you should be using a gun with a telescopic sight and a silencer. Not a bicycle and a hammer, or whatever it was.’

‘Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,’ Gillard said, holding a hand in the air. ‘We’ve secured our evidence, we got active lines of inquiry on bikes and in seeking extra witnesses, but the main immediate task is to restrain speculation in the public domain. We need to preemptively manage the press, which might otherwise distract us from our work.’ He turned back to Christina.

‘I’ve had my first couple of press calls already, and I just want to make sure we are singing off the same hymn sheet,’ she said. ‘One, we are keeping an open mind. Two, we urgently want to contact a cyclist who was seen passing through the area at about the time the attack took place. I’m circulating the description, such as it is.’

Gillard interjected: ‘I know a number of you are likely to be contacted directly by the press, particularly those reporters you have dealt with in the past. I think it’s very important that nothing we say ends up being used to prop up speculation that members of the press will inevitably make. We are going to keep close to the evidence we have. Is that understood?’

They all nodded their agreement.

‘One more thing I’d like to add,’ Christina said. ‘Alison Rigby has signed off on half a dozen extra staff to deal with calls from the public, one of whom I shall be retaining for dealing with the press.’

Surrey Police’s feisty chief constable was a rising star. Having made her name more than a decade ago in one of the toughest apprenticeships possible, the drug squad in Hull, Rigby had been rapidly promoted for her ability to get results. Such early decisive action was typical of her style.

It was left to Gillard to wrap up the meeting. ‘Dr David Delahaye will be undertaking the post-mortem at East Surrey Hospital on Tuesday. The initial DNA samples have already been sent away. Gabby has already spoken to Mrs Roy’s PA and her son, Harshil, the middle child, who is the finance director of her businesses. There are two daughters as well. Prisha is the eldest and runs a spa in Marylebone, while Kiara is an up-and-coming fashion designer. Gabby and I will hopefully be seeing them all tonight in London. I’m eager to learn a lot more about the late Mrs Roy.’

Gillard and Kirsty Mockett were standing with Yaz Quoroshi, head of CSI, looking into a chest freezer unit in Mount Browne’s cavernous evidence warehouse, where the preserved sample was on display in the open pizza box.

‘The snow had begun to soften a little bit by the time the sample was in a deep freeze, but the tread of the tyre is a fairly clear, as is the tip of the running shoe,’ Quoroshi said. ‘I think it is safe to say that this sample together with the photographs you took give a clear indication that the assailant was riding the bicycle.’