His face showed surprise. ‘How do you know about that?’

‘Because I saw you storm out of the room,’ Abbott told him. ‘I also saw Rachel follow you down the stairs. She was obviously upset. Minutes later, you were captured on one of the hotel’s surveillance cameras hurrying across reception towards the rear of the hotel.’

‘Not long after that, Rachel was murdered down by the lake,’ James said, as he took a photograph from the folder in front of him and pushed it across the table towards Salvi. ‘That picture was taken after her body was hauled out of the water. We believe you did that to her and we want to know why and how it happened.’

Salvi took one look at the photo and his eyes swelled. A second later his mouth fell open and he threw up on the table.

CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE

The interview had to be suspended while Salvi was taken to the bathroom to be cleaned up. At the same time, James arranged for another room to be made available for when they reconvened.

While the man’s reaction to seeing the photograph had been unexpected, it wasn’t uncommon. Over the years James had seen many suspects respond in the same dramatic way when confronted with the unsightly image of a murder victim. And they included individuals who it later turned out had committed the heinous crime.

‘It might have been wise to have warned him what to expect, Detective Inspector Walker,’ Salvi’s solicitor said while they were waiting for the custody officer to bring his client back to them. ‘It’s clear to me that he’s in a fragile state, both physically as well as emotionally. He apparently had no sleep last night and has eaten nothing since this morning.’

‘He arrived in London yesterday,’ James said. ‘Do you know where he stayed overnight?’

‘At the airport. He’d been planning to book into a hotel but when he got off the train he decided not to and went straight to Heathrow where he stretched out across some seats.’

Ten minutes later, the interview was ready to begin again.

‘I’m sorry about that,’ Salvi said when he was seated. ‘That photograph turned my stomach and I just couldn’t hold it in.’

‘I won’t show you any more images of the victim,’ James said, ‘but I’d like you to look at two pictures of the crime scene itself.’

James placed the photos on the table between Salvi and his lawyer.

‘The first is of the jetty,’ he said. ‘We believe Rachel was standing on it when she was attacked. The second is a close up showing her broken glasses and her purse.’

Salvi swiped the heel of his hand across his face. ‘Please believe me when I tell you again that I did not do that to her,’ he said, his breath rattling hoarsely in his throat. ‘I am not a killer.’

‘But look at it from our viewpoint, Mr Salvi,’ James told him. ‘You argued with her and then she went missing and was fatally attacked. It’s not a stretch to conclude that your argument could have continued down by the lake and it got so heated that you lost your temper and struck her several times with whatever object you had to hand. When you realised that she was dead, you pushed her over the side of the jetty and hurriedly fled the scene through the back gate.’