‘How did your mum die, Claudia? Because your old school friends don’t remember it quite like you do.’ Thanks to Joe, one of Claudia’s lies had been discovered and verified. It wasn’t the dramatic reveal Leanne longed for, but it was a start.

‘Have you been harassing them too? If you’re not careful, Leanne, someone is going to put in a complaint about you.’

Rather than respond to the threat, Leanne waited it out.

‘Why are you doing this?’ Claudia demanded. Her grip on the door handle tightened. ‘You really want to know what happened with my mum? Fine! She didn’t die, she left us. I was five years old. Dad promised she’d come back, but she never did. He was stringing me along, doing everything he could to avoid accepting sole responsibility for his daughter. He’s the liar!’

‘Is that why you don’t see him any more? Or is it because you’re afraid Justin will find out you’ve been lying to him? Wouldn’t it have been less painful to simply tell the truth?’

‘Is it a crime to want people to think better of you?’

‘I expect that depends on the lie.’

Claudia shook her head in despair. ‘I thought you were better than this, Leanne. This isn’t news. Why are we even having this conversation?’

‘I don’t know, Claudia. Why do you think we’re having this conversation?’

Claudia didn’t answer. There was no smile now, forced or otherwise.

‘Don’t you want to know what else I’m working on?’

With one hand on the car, the other resting on her hip, Claudia had miraculously become impervious to the cold that had been making her shiver. She held Leanne’s gaze and refused to be baited.

‘I’ve acquired a seating plan of who was sitting where in the theatre.’ Leanne didn’t say how she had acquired the information because Phillipa had asked her not to, but Claudia’s eyes widened. She knew. ‘For instance, I have it on very good authority that your tickets were in Row I, which was three rows behind Amelia. You would have been in either seat 8 or 9. Do you remember which?’

‘No.’

Leanne’s nostrils flared. ‘Funny thing is, I know the lady who was sitting in seat 10, which was the aisle seat.’ She didn’t offer any more information on Mrs Brody either, given their pithy telephone conversation.

‘Is there a point to this?’

‘The lady in question is adamant that you weren’t one of the two women sitting next to her. Two tickets. Two seats. And you were in neither. So I suppose my point is, where were you?’