Have managed to locate Simone on holiday in the Algarve. She left Lulu’s management company under a cloud a few months back, after discovering that money was being syphoned off from Lulu to Seth Gordon’s private accounts. She was going to go to the police, but Gordon threatened her and her family and she was terrified to take it any further.

I started to read Rick Askew’s statement aloud, but Seth Gordon cut me off with an infuriated bark. “He knew what he was getting involved in, the sneaky bastard! The pound signs were rattling his eyes from the word go.”

I could feel my eyebrows rising. “So, you admit that you knew that the Stardust range wasn’t what it was claiming to be?”

He gave his tie an ineffectual flap against his shirt, but said nothing.

“Do I take your silence to mean a yes?”

His hot light-brown eyes flashed.

“Are you prepared to give me a full account of what actually happened, Mr Gordon?”

His frozen gaze locked with mine. “We can talk properly out by reception.” His lips flickered into a tight smile. “I’ve just had a new Jura S8 coffee machine installed.”

I examined his face across the desk. An uneasy sense of foreboding crawled over me. “What’s wrong with talking in here?”

Seth Gordon made a casual shrug of his bony shoulders. “I could murder a first-rate cappuccino.”

The way his lips rolled around the word murder made my heart batter harder against my rib cage. Oh, this was ridiculous! I was being ridiculous. He wouldn’t be so stupid as to try anything. This was just his pathetic way of trying to frighten me; psyche me out. It was all about intimidation with people like him.

“Ready for a delicious coffee then, Ms Baxter?”

I swallowed back a growing sense of trepidation again. “Yes. All right. Thank you.”

He jumped up from behind his desk and pulled open his office door. “Ladies first.”

My hand reached for the strap of my shoulder bag and gripped it tighter. The air was still and empty in the silent expanse of the reception area.

“Let’s discuss this further down the corridor,” he suggested, indicating to an alcove on the right. Talk about smooth.

I started to follow him and then the next few moments morphed into a terrifying blur.

Instead of leading me into the alcove where his coffee machine and squashy seats awaited, Seth Gordon whirled round towards me and grabbed both my arms in a vice-like grip.

It took a few seconds for me to grasp what was happening before adrenalin kicked in. I began to struggle and wriggle, my shoulder bag crashing to the carpet and its contents spinning everywhere. For a slender man he had a powerful grip.