James crouched down and gave her a gentle peck on the forehead, which felt warm against his lips. She might have had a temperature but other than that she appeared to be perfectly okay. As cute and cuddly as ever.

James left her there and went into the kitchen where Annie was ladling his favourite chicken stew into a bowl.

‘Your drink is over there on the table,’ she said.

She’d poured him a large whisky with ice and it was just what he needed after the day he’d had. As he fired it down, he felt it bite the back of his throat.

‘You can tell me all about your day and night while we eat this,’ Annie said. ‘Then you can shower and change while I clean up, if you like.’

Annie evidently knew quite a bit already about the murder of Rachel Elliott because she’d been following the story on the news throughout the day, but having him describe how it had impacted on Rachel’s family and friends almost moved her to tears. Several times she closed her eyes and shook her head as though she were trying to banish whatever image had formed in her mind.

‘I was surprised to learn that Rachel’s parents used to live here in the village,’ he told her. ‘They moved to Bowness just over thirty years ago before their girls were born.’

‘My mum and dad probably knew them then,’ Annie said. ‘What are they like?’

‘They seem a nice, down-to-earth couple. It’s such a terrible shame what’s happened.’

James revealed what the couple had said about the sibling rivalry between Rachel and her elder sister.

‘I feel sorry for Libby,’ he said. ‘The parents don’t like Greg Murphy and they tried to talk her out of marrying him. Her mother even snapped at her in front of me and told her that if she hadn’t gone ahead with the wedding then her sister would still be alive.’

Annie was aghast. ‘Oh, that is truly awful. The poor woman.’

James chose not to go into too much more detail about the case. He feared that the more he talked about it the less likely it was that either of them would get a good night’s sleep.

After dinner, he went upstairs and had a hot shower, then put on jeans and a jumper. When he came back down Annie had finished cleaning up and was sitting on the sofa with Bella on her lap.

‘She’s just woken up,’ Annie said. ‘Would you like to have a cuddle before I see if she’s hungry?’

Bella’s eyes were wide open and she was chewing on her dummy. James was eager to enfold her in his arms, but just as he was about to take her his phone buzzed.

‘Damn it,’ he said, stepping back and reaching for it in his back pocket. ‘I’d better take this. Sorry.’

He recognised the number as soon as he saw it on the screen.

‘Is that Detective Inspector Walker?’ Mary Wilson said when he answered.