‘Yes. That’s a good thought.’

‘Would it be possible to see the room where Stefan Codrescu was living?’

‘I’ll take you there after supper. It’s being used by one of our other staff members. But I’m sure they won’t mind.’

The waiter came over with the drinks and at the same time Lisa Treherne arrived. At least, I assumed it was her. I had seen photographs of her sister, Cecily, in the newspaper: a pretty woman with a rather babyish face, pursed lips, round cheeks. Apart from her fair hair, cut short in an old-fashioned style, this woman looked nothing like her. She was solid, unsmiling, wearing clothes that were deliberately business-like with cheap spectacles and sensible shoes. She had a scar on the side of her mouth and I found it hard to stop myself staring. It was a dead straight line about half an inch long: it could have been cut with a knife. If it had been me I would have softened it with a little concealer but she had allowed it to define her. She was scowling and it was as if she was unable to smile, as if the scar prevented her.

She approached the table like a boxer climbing into the ring and even before she spoke I knew we weren’t going to get along. ‘So you’re Susan Ryeland,’ she said. She sat down without any ceremony. ‘I’m Lisa Treherne.’

‘It’s nice to meet you,’ I said.

‘Is it?’

‘Do you want a drink, dear?’ Lawrence asked, a little nervously.

‘I already told the waiter.’ She looked me straight in the eye. ‘Was it your idea to send Alan Conway here?’

‘I didn’t know anything about it,’ I told her. ‘I knew he was writing the book but I never saw his work until it was finished and I had no idea he had come to this hotel until your father came to see me in Crete.’

I was trying to work out if Lisa was in the book. There is one character in Atticus Pünd Takes the Case who has a scar: a beautiful Hollywood actress called Melissa James. Yes. That would have amused Alan, to take this unattractive woman and turn her into the opposite of herself.

Lisa didn’t seem to have heard what I’d said. ‘Well, if something has happened to Cess because of what was in that book, I hope you’ll be pleased with yourself.’

‘I really don’t think that’s fair—’ Lawrence began.

But I could stand up for myself. ‘Where do you think your sister is?’ I asked.

I wondered if Lisa was going to accept that she was dead, destroying any hopes that her father might still have. I could see that for a moment she was tempted, but she couldn’t go that far. ‘I don’t know. When she first went missing, I assumed that she and Ade had had a fight.’

Cess and Ade. The pet names weren’t exactly affectionate. They were more a way of saving time.

‘Did they argue often?’

‘Yes—’

‘That’s not true,’ Lawrence cut in.

‘Come on, Dad. I know you like to think of them as the perfect couple. Aiden as the perfect husband, perfect father! But if you ask me, he only ever married Cess because she gave him an easy ride. Golden smile. Blue eyes. But no one ever asks what’s going on behind them.’

‘What exactly are you saying, Lisa?’ I asked. I was surprised she should be so upfront with her feelings.

A second waiter came over with a double whisky on a silver tray. She took it without thanking him.

‘I just get fed up with Ade swanning around the hotel as if he runs it. That’s all. Especially when I’m the one doing all the heavy lifting.’

‘Lisa does the books,’ Lawrence explained.

‘I do the accounts. Contracts. Insurance, HR and stock control.’ She drank half the whisky in one go. ‘He schmoozes with the guests.’

‘Do you think he killed Frank Parris?’ I asked.

Lisa stared at me. I had been deliberately provocative but actually my question was completely logical. If Cecily had been killed, then it was because she knew something about the earlier murder. It followed that whoever killed Frank Parris must have killed her.

‘No,’ she said, finishing the whisky.

‘Why not?’

She looked at me with pity. ‘Because it was Stefan! He admitted it. He’s in jail.’

A few other guests had begun to drift into the room. It was a quarter to seven, still very light outside. Lawrence picked up one of the menus that had been left on the table. ‘Shall we order?’ he asked.

I was hungry but I didn’t want to interrupt Lisa. I waited for her to continue.

‘Hiring Stefan Codrescu was a mistake and we should have fired him right at the start. I said so at the time, although nobody listened to me. He wasn’t just a criminal himself. He’d grown up with criminals. We gave him an opportunity and he just sneered at us. He was only here five months, for heaven’s sake, but he was ripping us off almost from the moment he walked in.’

‘We don’t know that,’ Lawrence said.

‘We do know that, Daddy. I know that.’ She turned to me. ‘He’d only been here for a few weeks before I started noticing anomalies. I wouldn’t imagine you have any idea what it’s like, running a hotel, Susan … ’

I could have put her right on that one but I let it pass.

‘It’s like a machine with a thousand moving parts and the trouble is that if a few of them go missing, nobody notices. The machine doesn’t stop. Wine and whisky. Champagne. Fillet steaks. Petty cash. Guests’ property: jewellery, watches, designer sunglasses. Linen and towels. Antique furniture. Putting a thief in here is like giving a drug addict the keys to his local Boots.’

‘When Stefan came here, he’d never been accused of theft,’ Lawrence reminded her. But he didn’t sound convinced.

‘What are you talking about, Daddy? He had been sent to prison for burglary and assault.’

‘It’s not the same … ’

‘You wouldn’t listen to me. You never do.’ Lisa dismissed him and focused her energies on me. ‘I knew something was wrong. Somebody was stealing from us. But whenever I mentioned Stefan’s name, everyone ganged up on me.’

‘You liked him to start with. You spent lots of time with him.’

‘I tried to like him because that was what you all wanted. But the only reason I stayed close to him – and I’ve told you this enough times – was to see what he was up to. And I was right, wasn’t I! What happened in room twelve was horrible, but it showed that I’d been right all along.’

‘How much money was actually stolen from Frank Parris’s room?’ I asked.

‘A hundred and fifty pounds,’ Lawrence said.

‘And you really believe that Stefan would murder someone, hammer them to death, for such a small amount?’

‘I’m sure Stefan didn’t mean to kill anyone. He sneaked into the room in the middle of the night, thinking he could help himself to whatever and get away with it. But the poor man woke up and challenged him and Stefan lashed out on the spur of the moment.’ Lisa sniffed at me. ‘It all came out in the trial.’

It didn’t make any sense to me. If Stefan hadn’t intended to kill Frank Parris, why had he been carrying a hammer? And why go into the room while the occupant was there? But I didn’t say anything. There are some people you just never want to argue with, and Lisa was certainly one of them.

She called the waiter over and ordered another drink. I took the opportunity to order my food. Just a salad and another glass of wine. Lawrence went for a steak.

‘Can you tell me what happened on the night of the murder?’ I asked and even as I uttered the words I felt slightly ridiculous. They sounded so old-fashioned, so clichéd. If I’d seen them in a novel, I’d have edited them out.

Lawrence took me through it. ‘We had thirty friends and relatives staying over the weekend, but as I told you, the hotel was still open to the public and we had paying guests too. Every room was full.

‘Frank Parris had checked in two days before the wedding, on the Thursday. He was staying three nights. I remember him because he was quite difficult from the start. He was tired and he was jet-lagged and he didn’t like his room so he insisted that we move him.’

‘Which room was he in?’

‘We’d given him room sixteen. It’s in the Moonflower Wing, where you are.’

I had passed room 16 on the way to my suite. It was on the other side of the fire door, where the swirly carpet began.

‘He preferred the old part of the hotel,’ Lawrence went on. ‘Fortunately, we were able to move things around so he got what he wanted. That’s very much Aiden’s job, incidentally, to keep people happy. And he’s very good at it.’

‘The person Frank Parris changed with didn’t complain?’

‘As I recall, he was a retired headmaster, travelling on his own. I don’t think he ever knew.’

‘Do you remember his name?’

‘The headmaster? No. But I can easily find out for you if you like.’