‘It looks bad, really bad, and if they were to carry out even a tenth of it, I’d be ruined for ever. A lot of it is bullshit – completely unsustainable, the criminal complaint in particular. He might, at a push, a big push, be able to argue innuendo in a civil case though I’m sure I said nothing defamatory. But, with his money, he could issue proceedings anyway, for the sheer hell of it, and whether the proceedings were sustainable or unsustainable, it wouldn’t matter. The fact that they existed would be damaging enough. Or he might take the economical option and decide to report me to the Law Society for unprofessional behaviour, or conduct unbecoming, or some crap like that. And, if he does, they have to investigate and that can go on for months – years, even. Meanwhile, I’m in professional limbo and fired for sure. Worst case scenario, he sues me, gets me struck off and pauperises me. Best case, it’s an idle threat, calculated to terrify me with shock and awe tactics that he’d never carry through on.’

‘All you were doing was taking standard precautions for child safety, surely?’

‘That’s true. But I went for a public confrontation when I should have approached Alice privately afterwards, even Gill himself. Instead I set myself up as his public enemy, and made a complete show of myself and the festival – and dragged the firm into the mess. And there’s the fact that I took the photos out of the archive in advance of Gill’s arrival. It looks like I had an agenda.’

‘You did.’

‘I did.’

I paused.

‘My gut says Gill is guilty. If he takes any kind of action against me, I have an opportunity to defend myself in some forum or other, and he won’t want that. What I have on him amounts to diddly squat – but Gill doesn’t know that. That’s what I hope – that it stops here, because otherwise his own reputation would suffer too much. And, if you think about it, this is a total over-reaction to something minor. I mean, I’m a complete nobody in his world. The fact that it is such an extreme reaction means, I think, I hope, kind of, almost, that I’ve struck a nerve. That he’s rattled. Maybe he didn’t know about Deirdre’s death until I told him. Maybe he thinks she told me, or someone else, about him.’

I paused again.

‘But I’m shit scared, Sadie, about my job, about my life. If his intention was to frighten me, it’s working. And even if he doesn’t sue my arse off, what else might he do?’

‘Maybe if you apologised,’ Sadie said. ‘Threw yourself on Gabriel’s mercy, got a doctor’s cert, blamed stress or something, promised to drop the case? Would you do that?’