‘Why don’t you wait in the lounge?’ she said. ‘I can have someone bring you a bite of lunch if you’re hungry.’

‘That’s very kind of you,’ James said. ‘I could do with a hot drink and a snack.’

‘Me too,’ Abbott piped up. ‘I made the mistake of skipping breakfast this morning.’

‘Then make yourselves comfortable and it’ll be along shortly.’

They made their way back into the lounge and this time settled on one of the long, leather sofas.

‘Do you know what I find so fascinating about this case, guv?’ Abbott asked.

‘Do tell,’ James said as he sat back and loosened his tie.

‘Well, we’re not even forty-eight hours into it and it’s already throwing up so many secrets, so many lies and so many bloody surprises.’

James grinned. ‘Not to mention a larger than usual bunch of suspects.’

‘I just hope that our killer is among them.’

‘Hopefully we’ll know soon enough. But all we can do now is go where the evidence takes us.’ He raised his hand and started counting on his fingers. ‘We know that Douglas Hannigan threatened Rachel after she ruined his bid to become an MP with those photos. I’m not surprised he was angry with her, but did he take it too far and pay someone to assault or even kill her? Then there’s Carlo Salvi, the boyfriend. He had a barny with her and then left the hotel in a hurry and tried to leave the country. That puts him firmly in the frame.

‘Next, we have Ethan Prescott. Did he go after Rachel to try to stop her telling people what she thought she’d witnessed on the garden path?’

James scrunched up his brow as he briefly forgot who else was on their list.

‘Mark Slade, the best man, guv,’ Abbott chipped in. ‘A convicted violent offender who may have tried it on with one of the other female guests in the garden not long before Rachel was killed. He’s a hot favourite as far as I’m concerned.’

James nodded and then tapped his thumb with his pointer finger. ‘And finally, there’s Greg Murphy, the groom and owner of the hotel. He admits he didn’t like Rachel and he knew that she didn’t like him either. He was also annoyed with her for drinking heavily. Maybe he saw her going down to the jetty and decided to give her a bollocking himself rather than just leave it to his new wife.’

They were interrupted then by a young staffer who turned up with a couple of menus. James opted for a cheese and ham sandwich and a mug of coffee. Abbott chose a Cornish pasty and a Diet Coke.

After he left with their order, Karen Cornwall appeared to tell them that she had spoken to her boss and he’d said he’d be winding up the board meeting in about half an hour.

‘Can you wait that long?’ she asked them.

‘We sure can,’ James said. ‘It’ll give us time to eat our lunch.’