‘More’s the pity,’ Claire said, her voice cracking. ‘I can’t believe someone would do such a thing to that sweet girl who I loved as if she were my own. Whoever it was deserves to rot in hell.’

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

James knew he’d need to speak to the Prescotts again but it could wait as there were plenty more things he needed to accomplish before the night was out.

A wave of tiredness washed over him as he left Claire’s room.

This was already proving to be a challenging case. Yes, they had at least one potential suspect in Rachel’s Italian boyfriend – though he appeared to have scarpered from the hotel – however, James knew that putting all their eggs into one basket would be a serious mistake. There were other possibilities. It had already been established that the victim had ruffled some feathers, including those of her new brother-in-law, Greg Murphy.

Going down in the lift, James made more notes and added to his list of questions. He wanted a background check carried out on Ethan Prescott. Did he have form? Was he in a relationship? What did people think of him?

At the same time James felt it necessary to do some digging into Greg Murphy as well. At this early stage nothing could be ruled out and the hotelier had already made it clear that he hadn’t much liked his new sister-in-law.

James was also intrigued by what Claire had said about Murphy’s father, Michael. It seemed a bit much to blame the man for causing her husband’s death from a stroke, even if he had been a hard taskmaster, but it did appear that Greg had inherited some of his father’s unpleasant genes and was making enemies of his own.

But Rachel hadn’t been one of his employees and it was hard to see why he would have wanted to harm her. Unless, of course, she had known something about him, something that he feared she might reveal in her inebriated state and ruin his wedding day.

Perhaps he’d followed her down to the jetty to warn her to keep her mouth shut and when she told him to bog off it provoked a violent reaction on his part. Maybe he hit her with an object he was carrying or something he picked up, such as a rock.

James knew it was all just wild speculation at this point, but it was often wild speculation that eventually led to the solving of the most difficult cases.

Claire Prescott had aroused his curiosity in respect of the Murphy family so when he stepped out of the lift, he took a moment to run a quick search on his phone to find out a little more about them. And there was plenty of information to be found online.

Michael Murphy had made a name for himself as one of Cumbria’s most successful businessmen. His big break came over thirty years ago when his career as a tax consultant ended with redundancy and he received a significant payoff, which he then used to buy a small hotel in Cockermouth.