‘Apologies. I wasn’t intending to sound judgy,’ conceded Steph. ‘This recording that Elizabeth made, you don’t happen to know what she did with it, do you? I know it’s a bit of a long shot, but without any hard evidence, all this is just hearsay.’

‘The original I assumed she kept somewhere and showed it to Owen at some point.’

‘And you think that’s what led to her death?’

‘It’s a possibility.’

Steph pondered this for a moment, but the thought that Owen was a murderer just didn’t sit right with her. From what she’d seen of him, she couldn’t imagine him having the balls to kill anyone. Then again, what did she know? She needed to keep an open mind about it and Owen’s involvement was, at present, just a hypothesis.

‘Do you have a copy of the recording?’

Camilla took a long sip of her drink. ‘Look, I don’t want to get involved with what happened. I don’t want to put myself in any danger but … there was an incident recently which got me thinking and now, well, I’d like to help if I can. If it means putting away one, some, or all of those Sinclairs, then I’m happy to help.’

‘What happened to change your mind after all this time?’

‘I had the misfortune of bumping into Owen Sinclair recently, at an event I was attending. I was working, accompanying a businessman, and Owen recognised me. When I went to the toilets, Owen followed me. He attacked me. Said he was getting his own back for setting him up.’

‘He attacked you?’

‘Attempted rape.’

‘Oh, my God! Did you report it?’

‘No. I didn’t. Like I said, it was attempted. I managed to fight him off but not before he’d ripped my underwear and touched me.’

‘Bastard.’

‘His brother Dominic came from nowhere and pulled him off me. Offered me money to keep my mouth shut.’ Camilla spoke matter-of-factly. ‘He wasn’t interested if I was hurt or anything, he was just interested in protecting his brother. He assumed Owen had randomly tried it on with me – it didn’t occur to him it might be something more sinister to do with Elizabeth, and I wasn’t going to tell him otherwise. I did, however, tell him to keep his money. I was angry and upset. I should have taken the money, in hindsight. However, you coming along, it’s almost like fate. It’s karma. I can get my own back on him without being involved.’

‘I’m so sorry,’ said Steph, genuinely appalled at the story. Whatever Camilla’s profession, a sexual assault was a sexual assault – end of.

‘Don’t feel sorry for me,’ said Camilla. ‘I’ve dealt with worse than that and worse than him.’

‘I can’t say I liked Owen very much before, but, hearing that, I thoroughly dislike him now.’