Libby blinked back tears and after a short pause, said, ‘You didn’t have to read it out to me, Inspector. How can I ever forget what Rachel’s last words to me were? But that message was based on a misunderstanding. She jumped to the wrong conclusion and if I have to explain myself to Greg, I know he’ll do the same.’

James gave her a long, searching look and wondered if what she was about to tell them would open up a whole new line of enquiry.

‘We’re listening,’ he said. ‘Please tell us what the message is about.’

Libby trained her eyes on a spot above James’s head and huffed out a breath before speaking.

‘I wasn’t entirely truthful with you before when I said that I was talking to Ethan on the terrace when we saw Rachel walking down the path towards the lake. The truth is, Rachel upset me with her drinking and attitude so I went outside to have a cry. Ethan was on the terrace and spotted me walking down the path. He came over to see if I was okay, but I wasn’t. It had all got too much. The two of us stepped off the path and were standing behind a bush when Rachel came along and saw us. He was giving me a harmless cuddle, but she was still pretty drunk then and immediately assumed it was more than that. She took delight in accusing me of cheating on Greg on my own wedding day. When I tried to explain to her that she’d got it wrong, she refused to listen and stormed off, threatening to tell everyone. Ethan hurried after her and grabbed her arm, and that’s what she meant by him laying a hand on her. It wasn’t a violent gesture by any stretch of the imagination.’

‘Why didn’t you tell us this before?’ James asked her.

‘Because I knew that you and everyone else would get the wrong idea. At the time, though, it didn’t occur to me that you’d eventually see the message on her phone.’

‘Did you show the message to Ethan?’

She nodded. ‘He was still with me when it came through. Neither of us could believe what she’d written and that she referred to it as my “sordid secret”. It was almost laughable and, to be honest, we didn’t think she’d tell anyone even if she was convinced that I’d done something I shouldn’t have.’

‘And did Ethan stay with you after you showed him the message?’

‘I walked back into the hotel and joined Greg who was with Mark at the bar. And obviously I didn’t mention it to them. Ethan went to be with Claire who was on the terrace.’

‘So, you don’t know if Ethan went back outside to try to speak to Rachel about the message?’

Her eyes shot wide. ‘Are you implying that Ethan is the one who killed my sister?’

‘I’m only raising it as a possibility,’ James said, wishing he’d phrased the question differently.