She had seemed resigned to the idea, and for the first time Steph felt she was seeing a fragility in her mother she hadn’t seen before. Wendy was tired from the years of turning a blind eye and from the years of being under threat from Dominic Sinclair. Did Wendy think the years of pushing her daughter away, covering for her husband and neglecting her duty as a police officer had been worth it? Steph wasn’t sure. Wendy should have just come clean right from the off and then none of this would have happened. She felt uncharitable thinking like that, but it was the truth.

Steph was just about to close her eyes and try to get some rest when, to her surprise, she saw an unexpected visitor coming through the doorway.

‘Adam! What are you doing here?’

‘Come to see you, of course. Now that you’re famous.’ He leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek, his beard tickling her face, and then dropped several newspapers onto her lap.

Steph looked at them, scanning the headlines of the articles Adam had outlined with red felt-tip pen.

SINCLAIR CASE TO BE REOPENED

SINCLAIR DROWNING: LOCAL JOURNALIST FINDS NEW EVIDENCE SUGGESTING MURDER

UNDERCOVER JOURNALIST FORCES POLICE TO REOPEN CASE

‘Wow. I am famous,’ said Steph, without much enthusiasm. It was strange, now she had made both the local newspapers and one national; the excitement she had anticipated just wasn’t there. Instead, all she could think about was Harry and what a bloody tragedy this must be for him, together with Sonia and what a bloody relief it must be for her to finally have some sort of closure.

‘So, now we’ve established what a fantastic journalist you are, how about an exclusive?’ said Adam.

‘Never one to beat about the bush,’ said Steph with a wry smile.

‘Is that a yes?’

‘No! No, it’s not.’

‘We can pay you. I’ve been given an open chequebook.’ He shrugged at Steph’s doubtful expression. ‘OK, not totally open, but we can pay.’

‘Honestly, Adam, it’s not about the money. I don’t want to sell my story.’ She looked away. She hadn’t consciously come to that decision until that very moment, but she suspected it had been there all the time. It would somehow feel disloyal to Harry. She didn’t want to cause him any more pain than he already had to deal with. Her integrity as a person far outweighed her ambition to make it in the world of journalism.

‘Oh, come on. As a favour to me. Say yes. I’m going to be fired on the spot if I don’t come back with a yes.’ Adam pushed his hands together in prayer.

‘Have you got the contract with you?’ Steph asked.