THE EARLY PART OF THE investigation was grinding along at the usual slow pace. By now, of course, if it hadn’t been for the fact it was midwinter, it would have been approaching dawn. Everyone was tired and frustrated. The team hadn’t been able to contact many of the big-wig party attendees, most of whom were far-flung and had hours since flung themselves and their partners back from whence they had come. And even when they were big-wigs of more local flavour, their business interests were often wide-spread, global and twenty-four-hour. Not for men such as they the luxury of falling into bed in a drunken stupor after a party. As Rafferty and his team had discovered during the hours after their arrival at the hotel, on telephoning the guests’ homes, a large number of these guests had quickl
