Sonia gave a small shake of her head. ‘She didn’t really have any friends there. That was half the trouble. She was so bored. She had her sister-in-law, Natalie – she was married to the youngest of the brothers. But outside the family … no, I can’t remember her talking about anyone in particular. Well, I say that … there was someone she mentioned, someone called Camilla. I remember that because at the time I laughed and said what a posh name that was.’

‘Has anyone spoken to Camilla? Do you have a surname?’

‘I assume she was spoken to by the police – they did say they were speaking to everyone who knew her. I’m afraid I don’t know her surname. She was a relatively new friend.’

Steph beat down a sigh. There wasn’t much to go on at all. She passed the phone back to Sonia. ‘And you’ve shown this to the police?’

‘Yes, of course I did.’

‘And what did they say?’

‘That they’d look into it. I waited for nearly a week before I had to chase them. They said there was nothing to suggest anyone was having an affair, least of all Harry. They said that Elizabeth was clearly drunk and was probably referring to business matters. Harry seemed to think she was going to tell the rest of the family about him wanting to leave the business. She knew that would cause trouble. Elizabeth sent me an email telling me to ignore her voicemail. The police said it was proof Elizabeth hadn’t been serious.’

Steph’s throat felt dry and she took a swig of the remains of her coffee. ‘Do you know the name of the officer that dealt with this?’ She sat a little straighter and her body tensed as she waited for her mother’s name to be mentioned.

‘Won’t ever forget it. Right snotty cow, she was. She headed up the investigation into Elizabeth’s death. If you can call it an investigation. Took all of two days and that was that – they declared it an accident. DCI Wendy Lynch.’

Steph studied Sonia Lomas for any sign that she knew the connection. There seemed to be none, but was Sonia just good at acting? ‘Why have you asked me to look into this? Why not someone else?’

‘I would have thought that was obvious. You tweeted about Conmere. You’re a journalist. You’re going to be there on the inside, so to speak; you can ask questions the police didn’t, find things out they couldn’t. People are more likely to talk about it to someone other than a police officer. And now that a couple of years have gone by, people won’t be so on their guard.’