‘Not yet,’ Ade said. ‘But I’m working on it. According to the staff I’ve spoken to, most of the guests were very pleasant. The one exception was our victim, who seemed to have pissed off pretty much everyone he spoke to last night.’

‘Let’s assume for now that Raj is right and Nick was murdered,’ Rachel said. ‘We don’t have time of death yet. But we know all the guest bedrooms are on the ground floor with direct access to the garden and, beyond that, the beach. The dining room and bar also have direct access to the garden and beach. We’ll need to get statements from the staff at some point but let’s start with the guests. I’ve asked Marcus to get Clodagh Kinsella.’

As if on cue, there was a knock on the door and Chevalier’s head peeked in at them.

‘One of the guests is asking to see you,’ he said. ‘She says it’s important.’

‘Which guest?’ Rachel asked.

‘Tara Coleman,’ Marcus replied. ‘Says she was Nick’s girlfriend and she deserves to know what’s going on.’

Girlfriend? Rachel glanced at Ade. This was new information to both of them.

‘Well then,’ Rachel said, ‘you’d better ask her to come in.’

She’d already gone onto the internet and looked up all the survivors. When Tara Coleman came into the room, Rachel recognised her from the photos she’d seen online. Tall and willowy, with a wispy fringe of brown hair and big brown eyes. Even today, dressed in a crumpled linen shirt and jeans that had clearly seen better days, there was an elegance about her that Rachel could only dream of possessing. According to a profile piece Rachel found online, Tara worked for a luxury fashion brand in Mayfair and lived in an apartment near the river on London’s South Bank. She was single but was regularly pictured in the tabloid press on the arm of various C-list celebrities.

‘What happened to him?’ Tara said, as soon as she’d sat down. ‘You’ve got to tell me because I’ve been sitting downstairs in my room going out of my mind. Please. I deserve to know the truth, no matter how bad it is.’

‘We don’t know yet how Nick died,’ Rachel said. ‘Our priority for now is building up a timeline of what happened last night. I’m glad you’re here because I’m sure you’ll be able to help with this. When was the last time you saw Nick?’

‘Yesterday evening,’ Tara said. ‘Sometime after dinner. I don’t know the time exactly. I was tired and wanted to go to bed. I went looking for him and found him outside with Adam.’

‘Adam Murray, you mean?’

Tara nodded.