They stared straight at each other, seemingly locked in the moment: the bereaved, Salah Khashoggi, had eyes of cold sorrow while the man offering condolences, Mohammed bin Salman, gazed back at him with steely focus.

In the gilded office of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, the eldest son of the murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi reached out his hand to a man whom many believe was responsible for the murder. A cameraman busily recorded the moment as a family elder stood nearby.

The younger Khashoggi had received a royal summons to meet King Salman and the heir to the throne three weeks to the day after his father was killed in Istanbul. The fleeting encounter was, in the kingdom’s eyes, a centrepiece of a turbulent day as Khashoggi’s murder continues to cast a shadow over the royal court and a deeply troubled country.

In a nearby meeting hall that has been central to the kingdom’s recent history, delegates milled around an investment conference, the opening of which had appeared in doubt as the furore surrounding Khashoggi’s killing swirled around the region. An address earlier on Tuesday by the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who had threatened to table the “naked truth” about the death, had threatened to imperil the event even further. But Erdoğan, surprisingly, had held his fire, and a sense of relief was palpable in the cavernous space and indeed around the city.

Erdoğan’s deferential tone regarding the king and failure to mention Bin Salman at all surprised many in Riyadh. The crown prince was even comfortable enough to make an unscheduled appearance at the conference later in the day.

Bin Salman mingled freely with delegates, a very different lineup of guests and speakers to the ones originally envisaged, which had been hastily assembled after a mass international boycott. Most US companies pulled out of the event, and those that were represented sent mid-level regional executives, not their CEOs. Media partners, too, had been quickly replaced. Instead of CNN, the Financial Times and the New York Times were two Russian channels and Gulf broadcasters, which still gave the event a formal feel but with much less lustre.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Mohammed bin Salman (right) at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh. Photograph: Bandar Algaloud/Saudi royal palace handout/EPA

Saudi allies in the UAE and Jordan helped fill the empty chairs by sending large delegations that kept conference halls bustling. But there was no escaping the fact that this was not the same event as last year, when Bin Salman had presented himself as a western- and business-friendly strongman willing to throw money at corporate America in particular.

Global condemnation of Khashoggi’s murder clearly overshadowed the conference. Even some local organisers appeared to be going through the motions, touting lucrative deals and deepening friendships. Outside the event, dread about Erdoğan’s address had given way to relief. Maybe the day would not be ruined after all.

Erdoğan's Khashoggi speech poses tough questions for Bin Salman Read more

But as locals digested the totality of the Turkish leader’s remarks, thoughts shifted back to the fact that the fallout was far from over. The drip-feed of pressure from Ankara is likely to continue.

“I wouldn’t have said this a week ago but I think this guy is dangerous,” Thaer Mohammed, a civil servant, said of Bin Salman. “None of the others would have done this. It was a huge mistake and shows his head has gotten too big. How do we fix such a crisis? By giving him an alibi?”

Kareema, 28, a conference organiser, said the solid crowds in the meeting halls and adjoining Ritz Carlton hotel – where more than 200 of the country’s business and political elite were detained shortly after last year’s conference – showed that the kingdom could project an image of business as usual. “But we all know that this year isn’t normal,” she said. “How can it be?”

In a Riyadh mall, Um Ghaith, 54, said she did not believe Bin Salman had known ahead of time what had been planned in Istanbul, and she thought he had been deceived about events ever since. “It is not in our culture to do this,” she said. “You will see in his speech tomorrow. He will reveal the truth for all.”