‘He was young.’ Mrs Hoskine grinned. ‘And keen. It was his first big case. He was sure Mr Trewin had been murdered.’ She drew her brows together. ‘There was something funny.’

‘What was that?’ Lottie thought about the bow again.

‘The American couple. The police interviewed them then they were never seen again. That always troubled me because they had rented Penweathers for the year.’

Alex returned with the tomatoes. ‘Gran, I fixed the tap. Why didn’t you tell me it was broken?’

‘Was it? I forget these things. Anyway, the American couple were the Venns.’ She washed the tomatoes, sliced them thinly and tossed them into the pan with the bacon.

‘What Americans?’ Alex asked.

‘Ones Mrs Russell didn’t care for, but they’d been sailing all that week with Diana and Mr Trewin.’ Mrs Hoskine looked at Lottie over her shoulder.

‘Now eat.’ She put the plate down in front of her. ‘You need energy.’ Lottie didn’t argue. ‘While I think about it, your poor grandmother was quite tired out having had the miscarriage just before they came home.’ She shook her head. ‘Stressful life in Moscow is what she put it down to, but I knew it wasn’t the first baby they had lost.’

As Lottie ate her breakfast, she added this to the information that Allan was having an affair with a man. ‘Was it a good marriage?’

‘Oh yes, even if it happened because of Diana.’

‘Gran had mentioned it.’

She laughed. ‘It was a bit of a surprise because I knew she had been keen on Tom Martin.’

‘You mentioned that the other day.’

‘Yes, well she followed him out to Yemen to be his secretary. I fully expected that we’d hear of an engagement in months. But we didn’t and suddenly she had been transferred to Damascus and then swiftly married.’ She topped up her coffee cup. ‘When they came home for leave and she had Diana, Joan was so happy.’

‘And Allan?’

‘He was a doting father. Loved that baby to bits. We fully expected a second one when they were next back for leave.’ Mrs Hoskine sat down. ‘Poor Joan.’

‘How so?’

‘She was like my sister. Managed to keep the first one, but lost the rest.’ She sighed. ‘Each loss chipped more of her heart away.’

‘And Gran?’

‘Well, she devoted herself to Diana. Teaching her. That little girl was destined for Cambridge by the time she was three. So good with words she was. And look at her now. Everyone knows her, a household name.’

Lottie nodded. She knew all about that, remembering the tabloid headline, ‘Public school boy dies in cliff fall. Diana Trewin’s daughter being interviewed’.

She cleared her throat, then said, ‘This Tom . . .’

‘He was devastated when Allan died. They’d been best friends all through school, served in the RAF together.’