‘Sounds like you’re well out of it,’ Gillard said. ‘Still I don’t really understand why Prisha should be worried about you, because of this trust stipulation—’

‘Ah, so you found out about that? Yes, I suspect that half of Prisha’s venom towards me is because she thinks we are in a race to produce a Hindu son.’

‘But you are not even married to Harry. The wording—’

‘Ah, no. As long as the child is born in wedlock, that’s the wording. It’s all academic anyway. Harry and I aren’t sleeping together.’

Gillard closed his notebook and thanked Morag for her time. ‘Do have a think about who has had access to your car,’ he added. He watched her leave the room, closing the door behind her. There was a huge amount to mull over, evidence of many rifts within the family, but no obvious reason why anyone should kill Mrs Roy. He needed much more before being able to narrow down a suspect, someone who could be arrested to allow Jason Waddington to be freed.

In the meantime, the future of the Roy’s family company seemed to hang in the balance.

Gillard snapped out of his reverie. There was one urgent task to be accomplished. He rang Mount Browne and was put right through to DC Carl Hoskins.

‘Carl, I’ve got something very important on the Tanvi Roy murder case.’ He read out the registration number of the Toyota Avensis estate that Morag Fairburn owned. ‘Look through the ANPR records right across the county, including the M25.’

‘Okay, sir I’ll get right on to it.’

‘Message me back with the details as soon as you have them. I want to know everywhere that car has been, particularly on the morning of Mrs Roy’s murder, but two days either side. This car may be the only firm connection between the murder scene and the Roy family. If we can work out who was driving it that morning, we may have our murderer.’

By the time Gillard emerged from the music room, Vikram Vaj and Harry Roy had disappeared, their vehicles gone. Gillard could hear laughter in the kitchen, and made his way quietly through to see Kiara and Prisha in animated conversation. Kiara looked up, alarmed, a hand to her chest when she saw Gillard.

‘Oh, I thought you’d gone. Can I offer you a coffee, and some snacks?’ She indicated several plates full of samosas and other triangular pastries. ‘These ones are particularly delicious, moong dal with spicy prawn and coconut,’ she said, taking a bite.

Gillard agreed, and a plate of the still-warm delicacies was handed to him by Prisha. ‘I was wondering if you could summarise for me what is going to happen with your family company?’ he said, before biting into one of the delicious crispy pastries.

Kiara looked to Prisha, who said: ‘It is still up in the air actually. We’ve had a takeover offer, from Mr Lam’s company, which is well short of what we thought the company was worth. We were both perplexed because my mother and Harry have in the past rejected much higher offers than this. It was only when Harry admitted that we owe the banks £108 million that it became clear why he was recommending acceptance.’