There’s another awkward pause.

‘To start with I felt stressed about being here because Simon had been with an old girlfriend,’ Cass continues, babbling. Maybe she feels she has to fill the silence. ‘I’ve been jealous and insecure about loads of things since Inigo was born. Silly really, especially in light of everything else that’s happened since. Things get put into perspective when someone’s found dead.’

‘I guess they do,’ I agree, but I am no longer listening to Cass. Instead, I’m thinking about Simon having been to La Madière before, and trying and failing to remember if Ria also said she’d been here before or not.

I realize, to my shame, I haven’t had a proper conversation with Cass this entire week, so I continue, ‘Remind me how you and Simon met?’

She blushes. ‘Oh. This sounds terrible but … I catered a dinner party for him and his ex-wife. Like I said, I was once a chalet girl like Millie, then I set up a small catering company when I got back to the UK. Simon and I kept in touch and I did some business lunches for him and … well.’ There is a pause. ‘They were already pretty much separated by the time we met, and he started confiding in me and … one thing led to another. Once they were officially divorced, Simon asked me to marry him.’

But I am still only half-listening to Cass as I am desperately racking my brains to recall if Ria said she had been here before. I’m pretty sure she has. Was it with Simon? Was she the girlfriend Cass is referring to, whether Cass knows it or not? Has there been something between them in the past? Is that why Ria’s been so strange this week? Has Simon made another pass at her? Is that why she won’t come down from her room?

I feel myself growing hot and try to tune back in to what Cass is saying, but it sounds like blah blah blah blah blah.

I remember that it was Ria who booked the chalet, but I can’t remember whose idea it was to get Simon along on this particular trip. Was it mine? Olivia’s? Or Ria’s? I can’t think straight with Cass burbling on next to me so I get to my feet and say:

‘Oh gosh, Cass, I’m so sorry but I’ve got to make an urgent call. Let’s talk again later, OK?’

She looks startled and says: ‘Oh, yes, OK, of course,’ and I feel momentarily bad as I realize she was confiding in me but I can’t worry about that now. I’ve got my own problems to think about.