Chloe Hadjimatheou

And Jason Isaacs was playing the sick and limping moth.

In July, I published an article based on some of the initial findings I'd made from that tip-off.

It highlighted some of the ways Raina Wynne had misled her readers about her origin story, how they'd lost their home, how and when they'd walked the coastal path and her husband's illness.

The next day, every newspaper in the country and many around the world had latched onto it.

It's the continuing controversy around the hit novel The Salt Path, the supposed real-life story of Rainer and Lorne.

Within hours of publishing, I had a tsunami of emails and social media messages from members of the public.

In the more than 20 years I've worked as a journalist, I've definitely broken more important stories, but none has had the impact this one has.

After the article, I was being inundated with fresh leads, and suddenly I found myself trying to piece together a sprawling mystery.

Who really were Moth and Rainer Wynne, and what happened on that walk?

All of which brings me back to that motorway service station.

I'd suspected how important that meeting might be because the person I was hoping to talk to that day was a family member of Raina Wynne's.

I feel like the public persona that they've put on, the image that they've shown their readers, that's not really them.

I don't know who they are yet, and I really hope that the person I'm about to meet has the key and might agree to share it.

I remember willing this woman to somehow find the courage to show up.

It's the beginning of a conversation, but if I can get this person to go on the record, essentially I think it will blow the whole story open.

So here goes...

Listening back now, I can actually hear that I suspected I was about to uncover something big.

It turns out I had no idea what was coming.

Inside that cafe, I sat across from this very ordinary-looking, middle-aged blonde lady.

But it quickly became clear that what she wanted to share with me was really quite extraordinary.