A shiver ran through Judith’s body and she decided to cut short her swim and let the river bear her back to her house. As she floated along, she found herself marvelling at how the river linked so many people in Marlow. She lived on it, as had Stefan, and if she kept going with the current, she’d pass through Marlow and come out the other side, heading towards the rowing centre.

Judith found herself mulling the fact that Liz Curtis was an ex international rower, just as Elliot Howard had also rowed in his youth. What about Stefan Dunwoody? Had he once rowed? After all, he’d been at the Henley Royal Regatta, hadn’t he? Judith realised she’d failed to make the connection before. Stefan had been at a rowing regatta when he’d first argued with Elliot!

She felt a tingle of excitement. It was a sensation she associated with solving crossword puzzles. A realisation that although she still didn’t know the answer, she was in the right territory. And the more she thought of Stefan and Elliot meeting at Henley, the more certain she was that her instincts were right.

Once she got back to her house, Judith dressed and poured herself a generous glug of what she liked to call ‘thinking Scotch’. She then went over to her baize card table and fired up her tablet computer. Pulling down some sheets of A4, she sharpened one of her already-sharp HB pencils and set to work.

She typed ‘Elliot Howard’ and ‘+rowing’ into her search engine. There weren’t any hits. Never mind. She tried again by searching for ‘rowing’ with ‘Stefan Dunwoody’ and was surprised to get a result. It was an article in the Marlow Free Press and Judith clicked the link.

The page she navigated to was in the ‘Homes and Garden’ section of the paper and was all about ‘local art gallery owner Stefan Dunwoody’ showing off his home for the readers. There were lots of photos of Stefan in his home, but Judith avidly read the text trying to discover what Stefan had said about ‘rowing’. She soon found the relevant paragraph.

Mr Dunwoody laughs when I ask him why he bought a house on the River Thames. ‘I can’t swim and I’ve always disliked rowing, so you’d think it was strange me buying an old watermill. But I love the wildlife you get on the river. As long as you never make me get in a boat, I’m happy.’

Judith’s enthusiasm evaporated. That rather answered the question, didn’t it? If Stefan had a connection to anyone in the case it wouldn’t be because of rowing.