‘You will call me if there’s a problem?’

‘Of course. But I’m sure she’s fine. And good luck today. This sounds like one of those investigations where you’re going to need plenty of it.’

Since moving to Cumbria, James had got used to driving in inclement weather. Thankfully, today wasn’t as bad as he had initially feared it would be.

The snow had stopped falling and the wind had eased so that what had already come down wasn’t being whipped into a frenzy. Plus, the gritters had already been out clearing the worst hit stretches of road.

He listened to the radio as he drove and the murder of Rachel Elliott was still being covered on the news. There were no new developments to report, but there were sound-bites from a few of Rachel’s friends who had attended the wedding. They described what had happened to her as a complete mystery and one appealed to her boyfriend, Carlo Salvi, to contact the police and help them with their enquiries.

There was no mention of Salvi being a research fellow at the university in Ambleside, but James knew that it wouldn’t be long before the media got wind of it.

He arrived at the office just after seven and there were quite a few people already in, including DC Abbott, who along with DC Isaac was pinning pieces of evidence to the two whiteboards.

‘Looks like I wasn’t the only one who woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep,’ he said to both of them.

It was Abbott who responded. ‘No point in lying in bed when there’s so much that needs to be done, guv. Did you manage to rest your weary bones?’

‘Enough to see me through today without flaking out, I reckon,’ he replied.

He left them to get on with it and crossed the room to touch base with the two detectives who had worked through the night. When he saw that they were both glued to their phones he grabbed a coffee and snack bar from the vending machine and then went to his desk to prepare for the nine o’clock briefing.

There was plenty to discuss and lots of tasks to assign, and he wanted to make preparations before his eight o’clock meeting with DCI Tanner.

He was still none the wiser as to what it was going to be about or why the boss had been so cagey. He just hoped it wasn’t something that would prove to be a distraction.

His desktop was covered with paperwork and Post-it notes, but the first thing his eyes alighted upon was the page from the Cumbria Gazette magazine that he’d picked up in Rachel’s bedroom yesterday.

James had completely forgotten to phone the psychic to find out if Rachel had gone to see her for a reading so he added it to his list of things to do and began preparing his notes. He didn’t get far, however, before he felt a firm hand on his shoulder and turned to see DCI Tanner standing over him.