‘Does that mean you’ll be looking in the lake?’ Denise said.

‘Of course, as well as along the shoreline and the land on either side of the hotel. You see, we have to consider the possibility that even if Rachel was involved in an incident on the jetty, she may well have wandered back into the garden or even into the overflow car park.’

James felt it was important to give them at least a shred of hope to cling to while their daughter’s whereabouts were still unknown. Without it, the waiting would be even more unbearable.

Before leaving the suite James told them he would arrange for an officer to wait outside in the corridor.

‘If you need to contact me for any reason then just ask the officer and they’ll sort it,’ he said. ‘I’ll get back to you with news as soon as possible.’

The reception area was almost deserted now save for a few uniforms. He instructed one of them to go upstairs and stand outside the bridal suite along with the assistant manager.

Handing the officer his card, he said, ‘Call me on my mobile if you need to talk to me.’

He’d intended his next stop to be the Garden Room, where he assumed Greg Murphy was still speaking to his staff and guests, but instead he decided to go outside first to see if there had been any developments.

A door beyond the reception desk provided access to the terrace, which was being warmed by a bunch of pyramid gas heaters. But when he stepped onto the path beyond it, he noticed that the wind had picked up and was swirling and howling around him.

He was glad to see that more uniforms were searching the grounds now and there were fewer guests outside than there had been earlier. When he got to the jetty nothing much had changed. The SOCOs were still doing their best to gather evidence, but Tony Coppell informed him that no new clues had been found.

‘It’s hard going, James,’ he said. ‘I don’t think we’ll get to the bottom of what happened here until our missing bridesmaid either turns up alive and well or we find her body.’

It was a grim prognosis and it prompted James to shake his head in despair. He knew that the longer Rachel Elliott remained missing the more likely it was that her family would never see her again.

He told Coppell that he had spoken to her parents and sister and that he would now go and address the staff and guests.

‘I’ll let you know if and when we find something,’ Coppell said.

As James stepped back inside the hotel his phone rang and he recognised the number as belonging to Detective Sergeant Phil Stevens, his second in command at Kendal HQ.

‘I’ve only just been informed about what’s going on up at Windermere, guv,’ he said. ‘Are you at the hotel now?’

‘I am, along with a team who are still searching for the missing woman. Where are you?’