London, present day
‘I was there for a job interview,’ Isobel explains, removing the article from the wall and handing it to Madeleine. ‘The editor approached me and asked if I’d consider coming to work for them.’
Madeleine looks down at the paper in her hand, reading again from start to finish as Isobel speaks.
‘I ummed and ahhed for a while about whether or not to go to the meeting, for various reasons, and then eventually I decided I would. It was with the main editor – I already knew the news editor, so I guess the idea was that I was getting a vetting more than anything. Anyway, the meeting was in his office. It was just the two of us, and a few minutes in, there was a problem with one of the pages so someone came in and called him out for a minute.
‘I wasn’t snooping, I literally just cast my eye over his desk from where I was sitting and I saw this at the top of a pile of papers. It’s an unpublished article – the main body of text is the real piece – but the standfirst is still dummy copy, you see? And the slug in the corner of the paper …’
Madeleine follows Isobel’s finger and reads the words ‘ANNA WITHERALL EXCL. Byline CW’.
‘CW.’ Isobel says aloud what Madeleine is already thinking. ‘This feels like a strange piece to write about your recently deceased son and daughter-in-law, even if Clive did feel wronged by them … why would he go to the press?’
Madeleine shakes her head confusedly. ‘I don’t know. There’s something almost too emphatic about the whole thing, too performative.’
‘Almost as if he’s trying too hard to push the point,’ Isobel agrees.
Madeleine turns to face her. ‘But why would he want to do that? I suppose if he was desperate to protect his image …’
‘Yeah. Or if he wanted to set someone up.’