Biding her time, she gravitated towards the refreshments table. All of the Thermos flasks for tea and coffee had been depleted, but amongst the empty cups she spied a rogue mini-pack of biscuits. She had skipped breakfast and went to reach for it just as someone else had the same idea.

‘Sorry, you have it,’ said the smartly dressed woman who looked to be in her mid-thirties. She pulled at the waistband of her trouser suit. ‘You’d be doing me a favour.’

‘How about we share?’ Leanne suggested as she tore open the packet. ‘Are you a journalist?’

‘No, I’m supposed to be in the room next door for a very tedious management course. I thought I’d have a little nosey in here instead, see what all this fuss is about our Claudia.’

‘You know her?’

The woman smiled. ‘We were good friends once. We were at school together,’ she said, eyeing Leanne carefully. ‘I take it you are a journalist.’

‘It was my article that caused this furore,’ Leanne admitted. Before the old school friend had a chance to consider the wisdom of continuing their chat, she added, ‘What was Claudia like?’

‘Eager to impress. Eager to be liked. She wanted to be everyone’s best friend,’ she said, lifting her biscuit to her lips, then pausing. ‘And I sort of get why she’d run into a burning building to save that little girl, but then again, she knew she was pregnant. Wouldn’t you want to protect your unborn child over the life of a stranger?’

‘I take it you weren’t there at the theatre,’ said Leanne, feeling the need to push back on Claudia’s behalf. This ‘friend’ appeared to be the type who enjoyed presiding over other people’s misfortunes.

‘No, thank God.’ She nibbled on her biscuit. ‘Not that it turned out too bad for Claudia in the end. Only she could put herself in the middle of a disaster and come out as the nation’s sweetheart.’

‘So tell me, why do you think your friendship drifted?’ Leanne asked, although having spent less than five minutes with this woman, she could hazard a guess.

Claudia’s friend wrinkled her nose. ‘Oh, this and that,’ she said vaguely. ‘Once she had Justin, she didn’t want to have people around who might tell tales about her misspent youth, or her childhood woes.’

‘You mean like her mum dying?’ Leanne said, shocked by the woman’s callousness.

The old school friend didn’t respond. She had caught Claudia’s attention and waved at her with a smile that might have been a smirk. ‘What you see with Claudia isn’t what you get.’

There was no time to press for an explanation. Claudia had shrugged off the last journalist and was making a beeline for them.

‘Kim, how lovely to see you! It’s been too long,’ said Claudia, hugging her friend.