James shook his head. ‘You’re well aware, Mr Edgar, that we can apply for a custody extension, which would almost certainly be granted given that your client is a flight risk.’

The formal questions began then, but Salvi stuck to the same answers he had given the day before.

‘I did not murder Rachel,’ he said. ‘She was alive when I left the hotel.’

James could tell that the frustration was like a storm raging inside the man and some of his words were lost as he struggled to speak.

They were twenty minutes into the interview, and getting nowhere fast, when there came a sharp knock on the door before it was opened by DC Isaac. She signalled to James that she needed to speak to him.

For the benefit of the tape, James announced that the interview was being suspended and apologised to Salvi and his solicitor.

As the detectives stepped out of the room into the corridor, Isaac wasted no time.

‘I’m afraid you’re not going to like it,’ she said. ‘We now have proof that Mr Salvi was not at the hotel at the time Rachel was killed.’

CHAPTER SIXTY

Carlo Salvi was in the clear thanks to evidence provided by CCTV footage.

James viewed the footage in the office on a computer screen. The first clip showed the Italian’s hire car passing one of several recently installed traffic cameras along the A591 just north of The Fells Hotel. The time was 4.45 p.m. on New Year’s Eve – almost half an hour before the last photograph was taken of Rachel on the hotel terrace.

Another clip from a surveillance camera outside a shop had captured the car passing through Ambleside town centre ten minutes later. And when the video was paused you could clearly see that it was Salvi behind the wheel.

‘The next clip is the clincher,’ Isaac said. ‘The camera is on the front of a doctor’s surgery across from the building where Salvi was living. We didn’t know it was there until a couple of hours ago. It’s angled in such a way that it covers the road between them. At five o’clock, Salvi can be seen pulling up to the kerb opposite.’

James stared at the screen, slack-jawed, as a man who was most definitely Carlo Salvi climbed out and walked up to the entrance.

‘The car remained there for the rest of the evening,’ Isaac said. ‘And there’s no way he could have got back to the hotel by any other means before Rachel went missing.’

It was a major blow to the investigation, for sure, as two suspects had suddenly been taken out of the equation. The day couldn’t have got off to a worse start.

‘It’s a shame it’s taken so long to find this out,’ James said.

Isaac shrugged. ‘Couldn’t be helped, sir. It’s been slow going with the system moving at half speed.’

James swallowed back his disappointment and stood. He told Abbott to make the rest of the team aware of the developments.