‘I suspect so, although they tried to put it out pretty quickly and were frightened enough to call us.’ He observed Greg. ‘Are you thinking what I’m thinking?’

‘That they both have family that died from the virus?’ Greg said.

Malcolm nodded. ‘There’s anger that the police are here now, but not when we asked them to come, when the Party House was occupied during lockdown. If they had turned up, removed those folk and charged them . . .’ He halted there. ‘Things could get worse here before they get better,’ he said in a sombre tone.

Greg nodded. ‘I know.’

‘Any word when your guests might leave?’ Malcom said.

‘The sooner the better,’ Greg muttered.

‘Well, if you need to get back to them, we’re all right here.’

‘Snyder wanted to talk to me this morning, then let me off when I explained I’d likely lose my job if I didn’t turn up for work,’ Greg told him. ‘Since I’m here, I might as well try and see him now.’

‘I did my thing this morning,’ Malcolm said. ‘Not sure whether the scene last night helped his opinion of us or not. He’s pretty thorough though.’

And devious, Greg thought.

Pulling out his mobile and the detective’s card, he made the call. It rang out three times, then Snyder answered.

‘Detective Inspector Snyder? It’s Greg Taylor here. I’m in the village now if you have time to see me?’

There was some background muttering, he thought, between Snyder and his female detective sergeant, then Snyder came back on. ‘Are you nearby?’

‘At the back door.’ Greg explained about his call-out as a volunteer firefighter.

‘You’re a busy man,’ Snyder said drily. ‘I’ll see you now. The same back room as before.’

The main hall was still set out with chairs. Glancing in, Greg spotted Josh alongside his mates, the ones, Greg suspected, who’d been there the night the hot tub had been demolished.

It looked like Stratton might be right that the police were likely to charge them. Did that mean the DNA tests they’d all taken had found a match? Or had it been fingerprints? He felt sick at the thought of how much evidence might have been found on the body itself.

Just then, Josh looked up and met his eye.

Greg gave him a friendly nod, hoping Josh would read it as a message of support. After the fracas last night in the pub, Josh’s attitude towards him had changed, although Greg wasn’t sure if it had been for better or worse. Worse would be if Josh somehow thought that Greg had shopped them about the vandalism to the hot tub. But that was stupid, Josh had no idea that he’d seen them that night. Unless one of them had caught sight of him?