DC Abbott arrived in time to see the police dinghy approaching the bank. She was now wearing a heavy waterproof coat over a polo sweater and jeans and looked much more comfortable.

‘They’re just bringing the body in,’ James told her. ‘Are you sure you want to be here?’

She nodded. ‘I’m fine, guv, honestly. Sure, I was one of the wedding guests and saw Rachel earlier, but I didn’t know her or the family so I can remain detached.’

‘What about Sean? Is he all right?’

‘I just spoke to him and he’s doing okay. He’s in the Garden Room with the other guests and on hand to help anyone who might need a paramedic.’

Another twenty minutes passed before the dinghy reached the shore and the divers in wet suits stepped into the water and carried out the delicate task of lifting the body out. It was placed on a plastic sheet that had been laid out on the grass.

As soon as James stepped up to it, he saw that it was indeed Rachel Elliott. At the same time, Abbott caught her breath beside him and said, ‘There’s no question it’s her, guv.’

Rachel was on her back and beneath a white cardigan her pink maid-of-honour dress clung to her frame like an extra skin. Her face was frozen in a fearful grimace and even from a distance James could see the damage that had been inflicted on it.

Coppell was the first to kneel next to the body for a close look. He moved her head to check the back of it and examined her neck and bare arms. It wouldn’t be up to him to determine cause of death, but his preliminary findings would give James an idea of what they were dealing with.

After a minute, Coppell invited James to join him on the ground and pointed to two facial wounds that Rachel had sustained. One was just below her left eye, a deep gash about two inches wide.

‘She was found floating on her back so it’s unlikely it was caused by any of the tree branches,’ he said. ‘The pathologist will provide you with a more accurate assessment, but experience tells me that it’s from a sharp blow to the face that was delivered while she was on the jetty, and that was when her spectacles were broken.’

He then pointed to a huge, dark bruise in the middle of her forehead.

‘This clearly indicates that she was attacked more than once and with a great deal of force,’ he went on. ‘But I very much doubt that either blow would have been hard enough to have killed her.’

‘Then what did?’ James said.

Coppell leaned forward and tilted Rachel’s head to one side, then moved her wet hair so that James could see a large lump behind her ear with a gaping hole in it.

‘I reckon that this was the fatal wound, and that it was caused when she fell or was pushed onto the sharp edge of the jetty post,’ he said. ‘In all probability she was dead before she hit the water. However, it’s possible she was still alive but unconscious and then left to drown.’