It also made Elton her immediate boss.

‘Where are we on Longman’s murder?’ Elton asked. The question was directed at Sarah. ‘Is there anything new we can run in the next bulletin?’

‘There’s not,’ Sarah replied. ‘MIT are keeping their cards close to their chest. They’re releasing no details. At the moment we’d just be reporting the same facts as yesterday.’

‘Can’t we get anything from the guys on the scene? Maybe tap up one of the officers?’

‘Not this team, James,’ Sarah replied. She wished she had better news. ‘It’s not the local bobbies this time. It’s the Major Investigation Team from Scotland Yard. If they’ve been told not to talk, they don’t talk.’

Elton nodded his head. Sarah could guess what he was thinking. People in his position rarely took ‘no’ for an answer. But sometimes – just sometimes – ‘no’ really was the answer. The question was: did he trust Sarah’s instinct that this time was ‘sometime’?

‘What about a family angle?’ Elton finally asked. The question told Sarah that her boss had decided to go with his reporter’s gut. ‘Can we get anything from his kids? Has anyone contacted them?’

‘No one from us, no.’

‘From who then?’

‘Pretty much everyone else. BBC. CNN. Sky. They’ve all doorstepped Longman’s sons, looking for information.’

Elton’s demeanour changed in a heartbeat. The answer was clearly unwelcome.

‘And why haven’t we, exactly?’ Elton asked, his annoyance unmissable.

‘Because I’ve spoken to someone very close to the family this morning,’ Sarah explained, being careful not to mention Derek Reid by name. ‘And I know exactly what reaction Longman’s sons would have had if we’d doorstepped them as well.’

Elton almost smiled. Sarah’s answer had salved his irritation, at least for a moment. But he still wanted more.

‘Which I assume is the reaction the others have all suffered?’ he asked.

‘Exactly the same,’ Sarah replied. ‘A lot of anger and a few broken cameras. Nothing newsworthy, certainly not for the competition; they don’t look so good intruding and shoving mics in Longman’s sons’ faces. Especially when you consider what those men have just suffered.’

‘So your plan is what, then? In terms of securing the story now the other networks have queered their pitch?’

‘As far as the family is concerned, we wait. In a few days, when it’s all a little less raw, my contact will arrange for us to sit down with them. Just us.’

‘Why would they do that?’

‘Because the family trust my contact implicitly. And my contact trusts me. He knows that they will have to speak at some point. It’s inevitable, with a figure as public as Phillip Longman. And he knows that if it’s me they speak to, I’ll keep it dignified.’

Elton smiled again. And again Sarah knew why.

Doorstepping was the one aspect of Sarah’s job she disliked. The idea of forcing her presence on those who had just lost those closest to them had always seemed distasteful. But since her own losses almost two years ago – back when she had first met Michael, ironically on his doorstep – it had become unthinkable. She now understood the suffering of those left behind by tragedy, and it made her avoid the act all the more.