‘Where does he work?’

‘At the university in Ambleside. He’s a teacher or a visiting professor or something like that. Rachel did tell me once but I’ve forgotten what he does.’

As James made notes, he could feel his pulse quicken.

‘Do you know where he lives, Mrs Wilson?’ he said.

‘I don’t, I’m afraid. It must be in Ambleside though because Rachel stayed with him some nights and she walked to his place, leaving her Mini in the car park behind the café.’

‘Were you aware that she didn’t tell her parents or sister that she was in a relationship?’ James said.

‘No, I wasn’t,’ she replied. ‘But as I already told you, she said she didn’t want it to get too serious because he wasn’t staying long.’

‘Well, that is strange. You see, she told one of her pals that she was going to introduce him to everyone at the wedding as her boyfriend, and that she intended to announce that she was going to move to Italy with him.’

He heard the woman catch her breath.

‘Gosh, I had no idea she’d fallen for him so hard. She never mentioned that to me. I feel awful now …’

‘You can’t blame yourself, Mrs Wilson.’

‘No, it’s not that. It’s just … well, if I had known that she was planning to run off with him, I would have warned her against it. You see, a few weeks ago, I saw Carlo snogging another girl outside a pub one evening after Rachel had gone home to Bowness. I didn’t mention it to her because I didn’t see the point in upsetting her as he was soon going to be out of her life anyway.’

‘Is it possible she found out about it?’

‘I have no idea. But if she did, I’m sure she wouldn’t have been happy about it.’

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

New Year’s Day was coming to an end and James was about to go to bed. His body felt numb and hollowed out, and his brain was aching with the effort of thinking.

He’d been hoping that the evening would give him an opportunity to wind down and relax, but it hadn’t worked out that way.

What Mrs Wilson had told him about their prime suspect, Carlo Salvi, was significant, and he’d had to pass it straight on to HQ.

But to his surprise it wasn’t news to DS Stevens, who was still in the office when James called. He told James that two people had responded after seeing Salvi’s photo on the TV news, both of them claiming he was a visiting research fellow at Cumbria University in Ambleside.

‘We’re chasing it up, boss,’ Stevens had said. ‘But it being a bank holiday will probably slow the process.’

It was now ten o’clock and James still hadn’t heard anything further. Under normal circumstances, he would have chased Stevens up, but he’d felt that it was more important to spend some quality time with his wife and daughter.