There was a tiny wobble to her chin, but Izzy spoke confidently. ‘She’s fallen out with them – her dad especially. They never wanted her to go to Gritton. They said it was a horrible place, full of pig farms and abattoirs. That’s when Violet started doing the videos. To piss them off. Her mum’s vegetarian.’

‘She made the videos to annoy her parents?’

‘At first, yeah. We were messing around, having a barbecue. Violet had bought steak to irritate her mum, and I videoed her cooking it in a bikini. We uploaded it, for a laugh. And it went crazy. Thousands of views and all these people saying how hot she was. She didn’t realise it would get nasty, and part of her liked it. As for pissing her parents off – she hit the jackpot. Plus she’s making money now, you know, from adverts. And then some burger company paid her to eat their stuff and put photos on Instagram. But it’s not like she was ever a massive meat-eater. So she’s being a bit of a hypocrite. Before she was, like, the face of steak, she had a go at some lad at our school about eating factory-farmed meat. Said it was like rape.’

‘What did she say exactly?’ Jai asked.

‘This boy had said the usual thing about bacon, like, Oh but it tastes so good. Like the fact he enjoyed eating it meant it was okay, no matter how hideous a life the animal had had. And Violet said, And that’s enough reason? That it tastes good? Would you rape someone, if it felt good to you? It was harsh, but her reasoning kind of made sense in a Violet sort of way. It got a bit heated.’

That sounded more like the Violet who had the feminist books on her shelves. ‘So it’s a bit of a turnaround, then, doing what she does with the videos?’

‘Yeah, I suppose … But, like I said, she wanted to annoy her parents. She got a kick out of people going on about her and saying she’s hot. Violet’s … well, she’s complicated.’ Izzy’s face crumpled briefly before she regained control.

‘What’s it been like for you, Izzy?’ I asked. ‘With Violet suddenly becoming so well known?’

For a second she looked like she was about to cry. She shoved a strand of hair into her mouth, caught herself, and took it out again. ‘It’s okay, I suppose.’

It clearly wasn’t okay.

‘Is Violet in a relationship?’ Jai asked.

Izzy’s eyes widened. ‘No. No, she isn’t.’

‘Anything casual? Anyone she hooks up with?’

She blinked. ‘No. I’m pretty sure there’s no one.’

I made a note to follow that up. I didn’t trust Izzy’s answers.

‘Have you visited Violet in Gritton?’ I asked.

Izzy reddened. ‘Once. We went out for a drink with some people she knew.’