‘Great. Are you free to go with me to interview a suspect? I believe he lives here in Kendal so hopefully we won’t have to travel far.’

‘I’m at your service,’ Stevens said. ‘From what I’ve heard so far, it sounds like we’ve got our work cut out.’

‘We have indeed,’ James said.

Though James and Stevens had got off on the wrong foot at the start of their working relationship because James’s appointment to the vacant DI position had denied Stevens the promotion he’d been expecting, James had finally won him over and since then they’d got on well.

James tasked a support staffer with getting Douglas Hannigan’s address and finding out how many team members would be back at work the following day, and fifteen minutes later, he stood between two large, empty whiteboards. He coughed to clear the dryness in his throat and waited for the hum of conversation to die down before he started the briefing.

He began by describing the scene at The Fells Hotel and explained how the events of the previous day had unfolded. Reading from his notes, he then ran through the names of the family members, wedding guests and hotel staff he had spoken to.

‘Our three most viable suspects are Carlo Salvi, Rachel’s Italian boyfriend who has disappeared, Mark Slade, the best man who has form for assaulting women, and Douglas Hannigan, Rachel’s ex-fiancé, whom I plan on going to interview once we’re done here,’ he said.

He provided more details about each suspect and mentioned the birthday card with the threatening message that may have come from Hannigan, and the allegation that wedding guest Belinda Travers had made against Mark Slade.

‘But I also have suspicions in respect of Ethan Prescott, who dated both sisters, and with Greg Murphy, the groom and hotel owner,’ he continued. ‘Murphy admitted to me that he didn’t like Rachel and she apparently didn’t like him either – both she and her parents tried to talk Libby out of marrying him.’

James then ran through a list of other relevant points, including the blood traces on the jetty decking, the fact that no weapon had been found, and the way Libby had at first claimed that her last encounter with her sister was at the bar when in fact it was on the path leading to the lake.

‘So far, there’s very little in the way of forensic evidence,’ he went on. ‘However, the techies have yet to go to work on Rachel’s mobile phone, which was found in her purse on the jetty, and we also have her laptop and tablet to look at. They were retrieved this morning from her bedroom at home.’

It then fell to DC Dawn Isaac, a Scottish lass with a husky voice, to inform the team that background checks were being carried out on Greg Murphy, his late father, Michael, and Ethan and Claire Prescott.

‘We’ve had nothing back so far on a Carlo Salvi,’ she said. ‘He’s not on our database and nobody matching his description has turned up on social media. We’re in the process of checking with the airlines to see if he’s on any flights leaving for Italy today and his name will be included in news bulletins along with the photos of him from the hotel, so fingers crossed we’ll soon get a result.