Henrietta:Well, eventually Harry had to break it up, but by then everything had gone wrong, hadn’t it? You know, I felt so sorry for Janie Wood, after all the trouble she went to. She’d laid out such a wonderful spread – lots of hors d’oeuvres. Have I said that right?
     Anyway she’d gone to so much effort, but then she always does. And she looked stunning too. She’s a very beautiful woman, Janie Wood. She must have been furious.
     You know at first it was strange, because I remember Janie standing behind me, just watching the argument, and she didn’t look remotely bothered that they were making such a scene. It looked like she almost found the whole thing amusing.
     Though, of course, ten minutes later any smile had been wiped straight off her face. Poor woman. And then there was the whole issue with Harry and … Oh, it was all such a shame and supposed to be a lovely night, but after that – you know, I didn’t actually see Janie again? That was a funny thing too.

Marlow:Henrietta, do you have any idea why Laura accused Mia of lying?

Henrietta:No. But what I do recall is that at one point Laura said she knew Mia Anderson wasn’t who said she said was, and she was demanding to know why the hell Mia had come for her job.

Chapter Sixteen

Five weeks before the fire

Janie was sitting at her laptop trying to focus on preparations for her husband’s staff party, but she couldn’t clear her head. She sighed as she sat back in her chair and gazed out the window, her hand cradled around a mug of coffee.

Maybe she should take a break from party planning. Do some yoga in the garden. A headstand might help the unwanted thoughts drop out of her head. Searching through Pinterest for pretty platters of food and decorations was certainly not doing it for her, and she was beginning to wish she’d told Harry that she didn’t want to host another sodding party ever again. They were nothing more than a chore. In fact Janie had lost any interest in them the moment the first party was over, when she was left with an untidy house, bin bags stacked high in the garden and the feeling that she was the caterer rather than the wife.

Janie wasn’t a woman who felt a sense of achievement from throwing a bloody party. She was once someone who made the difference between people walking free or being convicted.