‘Okay, give her a kiss for me then.’

‘I always do.’

James picked up his notes and went and stood in front of the two whiteboards. As soon as his colleagues saw him, they dropped what they were doing and a buzz of anticipation rippled through the room.

‘Okay, listen up everyone,’ he said. ‘As you know, DC Abbott and I went to see Libby Murphy and Ethan Prescott this morning. We then paid a visit to The Fells Hotel. To say it was an eventful trip would be an understatement. But I’ll come onto that in a moment. First, Carlo Salvi is due to arrive here at any minute from London. As it stands, he remains our prime suspect. Not only did he appear to get into an argument with Rachel at the wedding before she disappeared, but he also tried to fly out of the country in a hurry. So, we have good reason to believe he killed her. Have we dug up any more information on him?’

It was DC Sharma who answered. ‘I spoke to several of his university colleagues today, sir. They mostly described him as an ambitious and intelligent guy who was good at his job. He’s never given them any cause for concern, but they were aware that off campus he’s earned himself a reputation as a bit of a player when it comes to women. But he never got involved with any of his students, to their knowledge, so it wasn’t seen as a problem.’

‘Were they aware that he was dating our victim?’

‘No, sir. And it appears not to have been common knowledge that he was attending the wedding at The Fells on New Year’s Eve.’

‘Do we know if he formed any particularly close friendships with any of his colleagues?’

Sharma nodded. ‘A Professor Mike Kennedy. I had a phone conversation with him an hour ago. The pair socialised occasionally and got on well. He also met several women Salvi took out over the course of the past year, but none of them was Rachel. He told me he last spoke to Salvi on Monday of last week and told him that his colleagues and some of his students were planning a leaving do for him this Thursday. Salvi gave no indication that he intended to change his plans and return to Italy sooner than expected.’

DC Isaac picked up on this and said she’d been in touch with the police in Milan.

‘Carlo Salvi has never come to their notice,’ she said. ‘His family live just outside the city and the local precinct contacted them on our behalf. Salvi apparently called them late on New Year’s Day to tell them he was flying back today.’

‘There seems little doubt then that he was doing a runner,’ James said. ‘I’m just glad we collared him before he got on that plane. Did Salvi’s hire car turn up on any traffic cameras between the hotel and his flat in Ambleside? If he drove to the hotel for the wedding and parked in the overflow car park, as we suspect, we need to know what time he left there and headed back to Ambleside.’