Wendy dropped her gaze before looking back at Steph. ‘She’s in a bad way. She suffered a heart attack from the effort of swimming back to shore. She had another in the ambulance. I haven’t heard any more.’

Steph couldn’t help feeling deflated at the news. Despite the woman trying to kill her, Steph’s empathy was with Harry. His mother had betrayed him on so many levels and now she was critically ill. He probably had so many mixed emotions about her right now, and who could blame him?

‘Have the police been to see you?’ asked Wendy.

‘Yes, they’ve just gone, actually. They took a preliminary statement.’

‘What did you tell them?’

‘Everything I knew. They took my phone.’

‘Your phone?’

‘When I was in the boat with Pru and I realised I was in danger, I tried to phone you, Harry, anyone, but there was no signal out on the lake. I thought I was going to end up the same way as Elizabeth but I was damned if it was going to be put down to another accident.’

‘What did you do?’

‘I switched on the recording app. It recorded pretty much all of Pru’s confession.’

‘Oh, my,’ said Wendy, with a smile. ‘What a clever girl you are.’

Steph looked up at her mother, whose voice and face were filled with pride and admiration. Steph wasn’t sure she’d ever been the cause of either in Wendy before and her heart swelled with unexpected love.

Wendy leaned closer to Steph. ‘I’m sorry I’ve let you down.’

For the first time in her life, Steph could see tears in her mother’s eyes. She squeezed Wendy’s hand. ‘It’s OK, Mum,’ she said. ‘Don’t cry.’

Wendy wiped at her tears. ‘There’s something you need to know,’ she said evenly. ‘In fact, there’s a lot you need to know.’

Steph could see the steely look resurface in her mother’s eyes, but she could also see fear and uncertainty. ‘What is it?’

‘When you met Rob at the house earlier this week and he told you I was asked to leave the force … he was telling the truth.’

‘I don’t care about that any more.’

‘But you should, and it’s important that you know the truth. It’s best you hear it from me first, before you read about it in the papers. I’ve never told you any of this because I wanted to protect you. That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do. I know I’m not very good at showing my emotions, but there was a very good reason. You won’t like what I’m going to tell you and you may need a few days to think it over.’

Steph sat herself up further in her bed. ‘What do you mean?’