‘Steph. I’m sorry I’m not there,’ said Sonia, and there was an urgency in her voice. ‘I’m about ten minutes away.’

‘Is everything OK?’

‘Not really. I was followed but I think I might have been able to get away without them noticing.’ Her voice was hushed. ‘I’m in a taxi. I’ll explain once I’m there.’

It was another fifteen minutes before a taxi carrying Sonia Lomas pulled up alongside Steph in the car park. After paying the fare and watching the taxi depart, Sonia jumped into the passenger seat next to Steph.

‘What’s going on?’ asked Steph; she could see from the look on the other woman’s face she was frightened. ‘What’s happened?’

‘Ever since I made contact with you, I’ve had the feeling that someone is watching me. Sometimes I think I’m being followed. I’m getting paranoid. The other day I came home, and I don’t know what it was but I just knew someone had been in the house.’

‘Was anything taken?’

‘Not that I could see. Everything looked exactly how I had left it, but it was just that feeling. Do you know what I mean?’

Steph considered Sonia for a moment. Yes, she did know what she meant. She was sure even if she hadn’t come into contact with the intruder in her lodge last night, she would have instinctively known someone had been there. ‘I do know what you mean.’

‘Have you found anything out?’ Sonia looked anxiously out of the window and then turned to look out of the rear window.

‘I’ve only been there a couple of days,’ said Steph. She hated admitting she was beginning to think that maybe there was nothing to report after all and Sonia was just desperately grasping at straws. That, over time, the loss of her daughter had sent her into the realms of conspiracy theories, the need to explain her daughter’s death properly so great it was clouding reality. However, she wasn’t quite ready to dismiss the older woman yet. ‘I’m staying on for another week,’ she explained. ‘I’m hoping to find out some more things then. It will give me a chance to have a look around and ask other people who worked there at the time. That sort of thing.’

‘Good, and thank you for believing in me.’

‘Is that all you wanted?’ asked Steph, thinking it could easily have been said over the phone.

‘I came to give you this.’ From her bag, Sonia pulled out a hardback notebook, with roses printed on the cover.

‘What’s this?’ asked Steph, taking the notebook Sonia offered her.