It didn’t take long for them to find the bearded man Abbott had seen coming out of Rachel’s room as he had been photographed standing with Rachel in the Garden Room at the start of the reception, both smiling and pointing glasses of champagne at the camera.

‘The guy is quite good looking,’ Abbott commented and James couldn’t disagree.

Carlo Salvi, if indeed that was his name, was probably in his early thirties. He was about six inches taller than Rachel and had thick black hair, prominent cheekbones and a strong jaw. He was wearing a tapered grey suit and bright yellow tie.

He appeared once more, this time in the background of a photo that featured Rachel with her arms around two bridesmaids.

They had viewed countless photos when Mike Lynch pointed at the screen and said, ‘That’s him. He’s the guy who was with the two women in the garden.’

James judged the man to be in his early to mid-thirties. He had unruly, fair hair and was wearing an open-necked white shirt beneath a black jacket.

‘My God, I know who he is,’ Abbott blurted. ‘I met him when Sean and I arrived at the hotel. We shared the lift going up to our room with him and his mother. His name is Ethan and his mum is Claire Prescott, who used to be a nanny to Rachel and Libby.’

James felt his pulse escalate. ‘So, what the hell were the three of them doing in the garden together?’ he asked.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Mike Lynch and Grant Fuller left the office and James and Abbott continued to scroll through and scrutinise the photos while James made a note of all the time codes.

He noticed that the wedding ceremony began at 3 p.m. The champagne reception got under way half an hour later, at around 3.30 p.m., and at 6 p.m. the guests started making their way into the main hall for the meal.

The last photo of Rachel showed her standing on the terrace by herself at ten minutes past five.

‘That must have been taken after I saw her in the bar with her sister,’ Abbott said.

‘At least now we’ve got some idea of the timeline,’ James said. ‘After the ceremony, Rachel posed in the garden for photographs with the bride and groom for maybe half an hour. She then went up to her room, where we believe she got into an argument with her Italian friend, before coming back downstairs and ending up at the bar where her sister had words with her. At just after five she was photographed on the terrace and about half an hour later, she was seen on the garden path with Libby and Ethan Prescott.’

‘The search for her began at about seven and her belongings were found on the jetty at around seven thirty,’ Abbott pointed out.

James thought about it for a moment. ‘It’s likely then that she was murdered between half five and half seven. And we might be able to pinpoint a more accurate time if she shows up on any photos taken by the guests or on the hotel security footage.’