‘Well, at least neither of them was hurt,’ James said.

Murphy shook his head. ‘That’s not the end of it, though. I intend to make a formal complaint to the Gazette. It makes me so angry when the press show such contempt for people who are grieving. It’s no wonder Libby’s upset.’

‘Before we left, we told Mrs Murphy about a couple of developments, one of which her father had already mentioned to her,’ James said.

‘Are you talking about the business with Rachel’s ex, Douglas Hannigan?’

‘Yes, I am.’

‘I was with Libby when Fraser rang last night to talk to her. That bastard Hannigan wants locking up for sending Rachel that card. Have you arrested him?’

‘Not yet. He’s still under investigation though we have ascertained that he wasn’t here on the day of the wedding. The alibi he gave us checks out.’

‘Even so, he shouldn’t be allowed to get away with threatening her.’

‘I hear what you’re saying, Mr Murphy, but the Crown Prosecution Service will have to decide whether or not to charge him. And they’ll only do that if they believe there’s a realistic chance of getting a conviction. In this case, I fear there might not be.’

Murphy clucked his tongue and expelled a puff of air. Eager to change the subject, James said, ‘The other piece of news we passed on to your wife was that Rachel’s boyfriend, Carlo Salvi, is now in police custody. I’ll be interviewing him later this afternoon.’

Murphy’s eyes flicked rapidly from James to Abbott and then back to James.

‘Where was he and who the fuck is he?’ he said.

‘He was apprehended in London before he was able to board a flight bound for Italy. He’s a research fellow who has spent the last year working at the university in Ambleside and he struck up a friendship with Rachel when he visited the café she worked in.’

‘So, he’s obviously the one who killed her,’ Murphy responded. ‘The bastard must have rushed away from here straight afterwards and was trying to flee the country. He probably thought he wouldn’t become a suspect because most of us didn’t even know he’d come to the wedding.’

‘We’ll find out what he’s got to say for himself soon enough,’ James said. ‘And please be aware that we’re still continuing to chase up other lines of enquiry.’

For now, James chose not to mention the suspicion surrounding Ethan Prescott or the WhatsApp message that Rachel sent to Libby.

‘And when will your officers be leaving the hotel? I’d rather be spending time with Libby instead of overseeing the business,’ he said, ‘but until we can get things moving again, I don’t have much of a choice. People will lose their jobs if we don’t quickly recover from this. Three forthcoming weddings have already been cancelled, along with a string of other events and lots of weekend reservations. I’m not sure what we can do to counter the bad publicity but we’ve got to try.’