The sound of her alarm going off brought Steph from her heartbreak. Her anguish was now turning to anger. If that was what Wendy was really like, then she didn’t care if she never saw her again. She scrolled through her contacts list and, reaching Wendy’s number, blocked it. That woman would never contact her again. If Steph never spoke to her again in her life, she wouldn’t care.

Chucking her phone on her bed, Steph dressed quickly. She needed to be at work in ten minutes and the sooner she got her shift over with, the sooner she could decide what to do. She needed some thinking space. If her mother was corrupt, it probably wasn’t a good idea to go to the local police. What if the police were still in the Sinclairs’ pockets? No, she’d have to go to a different police force, she supposed. Maybe she could ask Adam? She mulled this over as she brushed her hair. Adam had warned her to stay away from the Sinclairs, too. Was he the right one to go to? The Sinclairs might be able to influence a local paper. No, she decided, she’d have to go to a national paper with this. What she needed to do was to gather all her evidence together.

She stopped in mid-brush. What evidence? OK, she had seen Dominic’s drugs stash but if she alerted him too soon that she knew about it, he could easily move it. She’d have to take some photos, which would mean going back to the boathouse. That would solve the drug-dealing problem, but what about Elizabeth’s death? She had evidence from the SpyCloud that Owen would have a motive to kill her – after all, she’d been blackmailing him with the sex tape. Elizabeth had also recorded her fears that her life was in danger from Dominic, that she had discovered what he was up to. Well, it didn’t take a genius to work out that it was probably drug dealing, but it still wasn’t unequivocal proof.

Steph finished tying up her hair and straightened her uniform. She’d have to get a confession out of one of them. Did Harry know? Did he have anything to do with Elizabeth’s death? If he knew Elizabeth was having an affair with his brother, was that enough for him to want to kill her?

Whichever one it was, she was certain that they were all covering for each other. Sticking together. Dominic was the kingpin, Harry, she liked to think, was the reluctant one, and Owen the easily led one.

What she needed was some sort of confession. So that left either Dominic or Owen. She decided Owen was the weak link. If she was honest, Dominic scared her and she was pretty sure he wouldn’t talk, but Owen … she could use the sex tape maybe.