I reached down into my handbag by my feet and located my phone. I found the recording and pressed play. Seth Gordon’s greedy, insistent voice bounced around his office.

I observed his reaction, which morphed from charm to arrogant indifference and then to panic. He wriggled in his chair. “Switch it off,” he snarled. “I said switch it off!”

I stopped the recording.

“That doesn’t prove a thing,” he blustered.

“I beg to differ, especially as I now have these.”

“Have what?”

I delved into my bag again and plucked out a copy of the email exchanges between me and the dermatologist, concerning the ingredients and quality of Lulu’s beauty range.

I handed the papers across the desk to Seth Gordon. His eyes scanned the contents. “Where the hell did you get this?”

“Let’s just say it helps to be the beauty writer on a big magazine.”

Seth Gordon’s face flooded with temper as he read the comments from Susie Calderwood, the dermatologist.

“…these products do not contain environmentally friendly ingredients as claimed. They possess micro-plastic granules which can be very harmful to marine life, as well as acting as an aggressive and abrasive exfoliant against the skin. I would not hesitate in advising consumers not to purchase these products from either an ethical or a healthcare standpoint.”

I gestured to the emails as Seth Green rifled through each of them in turn, grinding his teeth.

“The packaging, the ingredients being used, the so-called ethical message… it’s all lies. Your lies.”

He muttered something incomprehensible under his breath.

“You made Lulu think she was attributing her name to a revolutionary range, whereas you’ve been using sub-standard plastic packaging and cheap ingredients.”

Seth Gordon threw the email printouts across his desk, sending them spilling everywhere. “You’re making a story out of nothing. You have nothing to corroborate this.”

It was then that my phone pinged with a text message from Kerry.

Just spoken to Rick Askew. He caved when I explained the evidence we’ve collated. I think he’s got the wind up about all of this. He’s blaming Seth Gordon for being the mastermind behind it all. He says: “I apologise unreservedly for being so naïve as to become involved in what has transpired to be such a fraudulent state of affairs. Showbiz agent Seth Gordon led me to believe that the Stardust packaging and products were revolutionary. If I had learnt of the deception I was becoming embroiled in, I would never have committed my PR services to the campaign…”

Then my phone let out another indignant ping. It was another message from Kerry. This time, she was talking about Simone Wales.