The reporter couldn’t be allowed to mine all that information Claudia knew was buried inside Karin’s head. Despite everything she had done for her, it looked like Karin was turning against her. Was there no such thing as loyalty any more?

After a quick call, the arrangements were made and Claudia slipped back into the bedroom, where Justin continued to sleep through the tremors that rocked their happy marriage. She was pulling on a Lycra top when he began to stir.

‘Are you off to the gym?’

‘I thought I’d go for a run.’

He looked towards the window to gauge the weather beyond the closed blinds. ‘It’ll be bloody freezing.’

‘I’ll warm up,’ she said, grabbing a hoodie and trainers. ‘You go back to sleep, I won’t be long.’

Justin yawned. ‘I should get up. I need to check my emails.’

‘Don’t work too hard.’

‘Same goes for you,’ he said with a smirk.

Claudia would need to push herself. It was going to be quite a trek into town, but she didn’t want to take the car. She had to get better at covering her tracks if she were to survive this.

34

Having not slept since her wake-up call from Karin, Leanne had started the day making calls of her own. The first had been to her editor and, despite claiming to be an early riser, Mal had still been in bed at six thirty, which was as long as Leanne could wait. She needed to know if she had a story. Actually, she knew she had one, but she wanted to hear it from Mal and, to her relief, there had been no mutterings of caution, no anxieties about legal action or upsetting the powers that be. He wanted a draft on his desk within days.

Leanne had spent more time preparing for her next call and had hoped to catch Claudia off guard, but Mrs Rothwell had remained unnervingly cool. Her explanation for the ‘confusion’, was almost plausible, but her veil of innocence had slipped. Leanne may not have worked out what Claudia and Declan were up to that night, but Claudia’s reaction at the mere mention of his name proved the hypothesis that they were indeed having an affair.

Karin was the link that tied the whole thing together, but when Leanne called her back as promised, it went straight to voicemail. She had to settle for leaving a message.