£40,000 in1985 is £90,000 today.
Sheila obviously was not taking heroin as there are no needle marks on her arms. So must have been taking a hell of a lot of cocaine or dope.
Maybe Jeremy found out over the last supper that Nevill was going to clear Sheila's drugs debt. Before Nevill telling Jeremy not be late for work tomorrow. He wasn't.
Heroin is in most people's opinion a worse drug but in general it is a cheaper habit.
You would be very surprised how much money a cocaine user can spend even in one night.
A thousand pounds or even two thousand would be common.
A session like that once a week for a few months could explain a 40,000 drug "debt".
If a dealer wanted to get a beautiful model firmly in his debt then it would not be a big investment ...
In particular if the dealer is giving the naive model cocaine at vastly inflated prices.
For a dealer a real investment of 4,000 cash could very easily lead to a £40,000 debt.
Typically the dealer will act friendly and say the debt is no problem - then when the debt is too high to get out of the dealer says that he ows it to his dealer and he is a nasty guy - and now it is out of his hands and the nasty dealer wants his money quickly - a bit like good cop bad cop but in a criminal sense ...
London was and still is full of dealers only too keen to use these exact methods on vulnerable beautiful young women in order to use them - was Freddie one of these characters ? Or was he simply a good friend to Sheila ?
What facts have we got to help us decide ?
I discount Mr and Mrs Bambers good opinion of Freddie because so often these people do meet their victims parents and do attempt to create a good impression.
The twins spent a lot more time with Freddie and they did not like him.
6 year old's do not dislike a person unless that person is dislikeable.