‘Yeah, a few years ago I went to Mick Durham’s funeral. Nice bloke. Married to a local police officer from CID. In fact, you know her. She was the one who investigated Elizabeth’s death – DCI Wendy Lynch.’

Harry felt sure the colour had drained from his face as he stared at his brother. Both of Steph’s parents were connected to Conmere and her mother in the worst possible way. He could hardly believe it. ‘Fuck,’ he said at last.

‘Yes, fuck indeed.’

Harry took a moment to digest the information. ‘Are you sure about that?’

‘Positive. As I say, I was at the funeral. Wendy Lynch was the grieving widow; despite the different surnames, the two of them were married. Mick Durham knew Dad. They went back a long way. Durham worked for Dad and then when Dad died I inherited him. You must know who I mean?’

‘What sort of work did he do?’ asked Harry, with a certain amount of trepidation. ‘Or do I not want to know?’ He knew both his father and his brother sometimes sailed close to the wind when it came to their business activities. Harry had purposely taken a step back from the business on this basis; he didn’t want to be involved with anything underhand. He’d made his feelings well known to Dominic and, although he had tried to persuade his brother to move away from their father’s business tactics, his words had fallen on deaf ears.

‘He did some driving for us. Just deliveries. Sometimes he’d drive Dad down to Manchester or London on an ad hoc cash basis.’

Harry fought down the ball of anger that was rolling around in the pit of his stomach. Steph hadn’t mentioned her dad working for the family and, more worryingly, she hadn’t mentioned the connection with Wendy Lynch either. He wanted to cut her some slack, but he was having trouble summoning up the generosity.

‘You were never really interested in what went on here, even when you were a kid,’ said Dominic. ‘I think most of it passed you by.’

‘I had my reasons.’

‘Yeah, well, let’s not drag all that up now,’ said Dominic. ‘That’s all water under the bridge. We need to focus on what’s happening now, and that we’ve got a reporter who is related to an ex-employee and the DCI who headed up the enquiry surrounding Elizabeth’s accident.’

‘I don’t actually think there’s anything to worry about,’ said Harry as he contemplated the new information. ‘We have nothing to hide.’ He looked pointedly at his brother. Something about the way Dominic’s gaze shifted away from his bothered him. ‘Or do we?’

Dominic rattled his pen between his teeth before speaking again. ‘Has this Steph Durham been asking any questions?’